348 



HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



rookery, over which the " holluschickie " haul in proportionate number, and from which the natives 

 make their drives, coining from the village for this purpose, and directing the seals back, in their 

 tracks.* Starry Arteel has 500 feet of sea and cliff margin, with 125 feet of average depth, making 

 ground for 30,420 breeding seals and their young. 



FORTH ROOKERY. Next in order, and half a mile to the eastward, is this breeding ground, 

 which sweeps for 2.750 feet along and around the sea front of a gently sloping plateau ; t being in 

 full sight of and close to the village. It has a superficial area occupied by 77,000 breeding seals 



LOW PLATEAU 

 fi;tnTi 6rc<-s3. ^"-^ very Flo 



. ow 



PL ATEAu 



l^ORTH ROOKERY 



Scale. 



=oo[t. 



'Driving the "liolluscbickic" oil Sainl George, owing to the relative scantiness of hauling area lur those animals 

 there, and consequent .small numbers found upon these grounds at any one time, is a very arduous series of daily 

 exercises on the part of the natives \vho at tend to it. Glancing at the map, the marked considerable distance, over 

 an exceedingly rough rjad, will be noticed between Zapadnie and the village; yet, in 1872, eleven different drives 

 across the island, of -1111) to 500 seals each, were made in the short four weeks of that season. 



The following table shows plainly the striking inferiority of the seal life, as to aggregate number, on this island, 

 compared with that of Saint Paul. 



The same activity in " .sweeping " the hauling grounds of Saint Paul would bring ill ten times as many seals, and 

 the labor be vastly less. The driving at Saint Paul is generally doue with an eye to securing each day of the season 

 only as many as can be well killed and skinned on that day, according as it be warmish or cooler. 



tl should say "a gently sloping and alternating bluff plateau ; " '2,000 feet are directly under the abrupt faees nf 

 low cliffs, while the other 750 feet slope down gradually to the water's edge; these narrow cliff belts of breeding fur- 

 seals might be properly styled "rookery ribbons." 



