350 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



swimming seals and sea-lions as conspicuous as is the image thrown by a magic lantern of a 

 silhouette on a screen prepared for its reception.* The low rocky flats around the pool to the 

 westward and northwest of the rookery seemed to be filled up with a muddy alluvial wash that 

 the seals do not favor; Lence nothing but "holluschickie" range round about them. 



RECAPITULATION. In recapitulation, therefore, the breeding grounds on Saint George Island 

 according to these surveys, which I made between the 12th and 15th of July, 1873, gave the follow- 

 ing figures. They are also, as in the case of Saint Paul, the first surveys ever made here : 



Name of breeding grounds, July 12-15, 1873. 



Seals : rf ? 0. 



'Zapadnie" rookery has 600 feet of sea margin, with 60 feet of average depth, making ground for 



' Starry Arteel " rookery has 500 feet of sea-margin, with 125 feet of average depth, making ground for 



1 North rookery" has 750 feet of sea margin, with 150 feet of average depth, and 2,000 feet of sea margin, with 25 feet of 



average depth, making grounds in all for. 



' Little Eastern" rookery has 750 feet of sea margin, with 40 feet of average depth, making ground for. 

 ' Great Eastern " rookery has 900 feet of sea margin, with 60 feet of average depth, making ground for. . 



18,000 

 .10, 420 



77, 000 

 13, 000 

 25, 000 



A grand total of the seal life for Saint George Island, breeding seals and young, of. . 

 Grand total for Saint Paul Island, brought forward, breeding seals and young, of . . . . 



Grand sum total for tho Pribylov Islands (season of 1873), breeding seals and yonng. 



1H3, 420 

 3, 030, 000 



3, 193, 420 



4. THE TOTAL NUMBER OF SEALS ON THE ISLANDS. 



The figures above thus show a grand total of 3,193,420 breeding seals and their young. This 

 enormous aggregate is entirely exclusive of the great numbers of the non-breeding seals, that, as 

 we have pointed out, are never permitted to come up on these grounds, which have been surveyed 

 and epitomized by the table just exhibited. That cla.ss of seals, the "holluschickie," in generat 

 terms, all males, and those to which the killing is confined, come up on the laud and sea beaches 

 between the rookeries, in immense straggling droves, going to and from the sea at irregular inter- 

 vals, from the beginning to the closing of the entire season. The method of the " holluschickie " on 

 these hauling grounds is not systematic it is not distinct, like the manner and law prescribed and 

 obeyed by the breeding seals, which till up these rookery grounds to the certain points as surveyed, 

 and keep these points intact for a week or ten days at a time during the height of every season 

 in July and August; but, to the contrary, upon the hauling grounds to day, an immense drove 



"The algoid vegetation of the marine shores of these islands is one that adds a peculiar charm and beauty to 

 their treeless, suuless coasts. Every kelp bed that floats raftlike in Bering Sea, or is anchored to its rocky reefs, in 

 fairly alive with minute sea shrimps, tiny crabs, and little shells, which cling to its masses of interwoven fronds or 

 dart in ceaseless motion through, yet within, its interstices. It is my firm belief that no better base of operations can 

 be found for studying marine in vertebrata than is the post of Saint Paul or Saint George ; the pelagic and the littora) 

 forms are simply abundant beyond all estimation within bounds of reason. The phosphorescence of the waters of 

 Bering's Sea surpasses, in continued strength of brilliant illumination, anything that I have seen in southern and 

 equatorial oceans. The crests t>f the long unbroken line of breakers on Lukanuou beach looked to me, one night in 

 August, like instantaneous flashing of lightning, between Tolsti Meesand Lukannou head, as the billows successively 

 rolled in and broke ; the seals swimming under the water, here on Saint George and beneath the Black Blufl's, streaked 

 their rapid course like cornets in the sky ; and every time their black heads popped above the surface of the sea they 

 were marked by a blaze of scintillant light : 



" Within the shadow of the ship 

 1 watched their rich attire ; 

 Blue, glossy-green, and velvet black 

 They coiled and swain ; and every track 

 Was a flash of golden lire. 



They moved in tracks of shining white 

 And when they reared, the. eliish light 

 Fell off iu hoary flakes." 



[ Ancient Mariner. 



