Tin: KI i; SKAL ixiirsTuv OK ALASKA. 



345 



tin- seals on Saint (itorge; in fact, never as many as there are to-day, insignificant as the exhibit is, 

 compared with that of Saint I'aul. They say that, at first, the sea-lions owned this island, and 

 that the Russians, becoming cognizant of the fact, made a regular business of driving off the 

 seevitchie," in order that the fur-seals might be encouraged to hind.* Touching this slatemenl , 

 with my experience on Saint I'aul, v here there is no eonllict at all between the fifteen or twenty 

 thousand sea lions which breed around on the outer edge of the seal-rookeries there, and at South- 

 west 1'oint, I cannot agree, to the Saint (ieorge legend. 1 am inclined to believe, however, indeed it 

 is more than probable, that there were u, great many more sea lions on and about Saint ( ieorge before 

 if was occupied by man a hundredfold greater, perhaps, than now; because a sea-lion is an 

 exceedingly timid, cowardly creature when it is in the proximity of man, and will always desert 

 any resting place where it is constantly brought into contact with man. 



The scantiness of the Saint (ieorge rookeries is due to the configuration of the island itself. 

 There are five separate, well-defined rookeries on Saint George, as follows: 



XAPADNIE ROOKERY. Directly across the island, from its north shore to Zapadnie Bay, a 

 little over 3 miles from the village, is a point where the southern bluff walls of the island turn 



ZAPADNTE 



ROCKY FLATS 



* Th IN statement f the natives has ;i si i . u i ^ i 1 1 e unistaut ui 1 back i ni; !>\ I he pnol islu d account of < 'hurls. a French 

 gentleman nf leisure, and amateur naturalist and artist, who lauded at Saint George in Isiil (July) ; In- passed several 

 days ot}' and on the la ml : lie wrote a1 sliort length in regard to the sea-lion, saying "that (he slimes were covered with 

 innumerable troops of sea-lions. The odor whirl) arose from them was insupportable. These animals were, all the time 

 rutting," iV e., yet nowhen- does he speak in I he chapter, or elsewhere- in his volume, of the fur-seal on Saint George, 

 hut incidentally remarks that over on Saint I'aul il is the chief animal and most abundant. Although this writing of 

 (.'lions in legard to the subject is brief, superficial, and indetinile. M I I value the record he made, because it is jiriinn 

 fiirif evidcm e. lo ni\ mind, that had the tin-seal ln-en nearly as nil menu is on Saint George then as it was on Saint I'aul, 



he would have spoken of the fact siirch . inasi -h as he w as searching for .pist such items with which to illuminale his 



projected book of tra\ els. The old Knssian record as to the relative number of fur-seals on the t wo islands of Saint 

 George and Saint Paul is He,-irly us palpably enoncous for 1820. as I found it to lie in IST'-J, 1*73. No inti-lligent ste]is 

 toward ascertaining thai ratio wen- e\er taken until 1 made my survey. loi/iiin I'llton-mim iiiilmir (In \lnnili-. //c\ 

 'x, pp. 1'J. I:',, pi. xiv. I--.".'. 



