452 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PEIBILOF ISLANDS. 



rough steps by men's boots. The general character of the ground is unrelieved, 

 although more or less broken by cross gullies and ridges. The final ridge is 700 feet 

 above the sea. 



On the Glinka side is a long slope, at first quite steep, everywhere grassy and 

 rather easy, but marked with road skeletons, as it is very long. The rye grass grows 

 longer below, and a little stream has deep depressions, which serve as death traps, 

 as the skeletons show, when the seals fall in piles one over another. Above (ilinka 

 is a steep slide of yellow clay, from which the village is said to have received its 

 name. This slide must be a hard place for the seals. The seals (few in number) that 

 are released because too young or too old are allowed to go down to the sea, whence 

 they go back to the west side again. 



PALATA DRIVEWAY. 



The drive from Palata is now rarely made, as the seals have become so few. They 

 are killed all along the beach, and the myriads of flies about the decaying carcasses 

 must be the source of great annoyance to breeding seals. 



The drive ascends from the parade ground on the top of the landslide. This was 

 formerly occupied by bachelors. But there are no separate droves of bachelors now. 

 They are scattered in little clumps about and between the rookeries. 



The drive then for about 100 feet ascends a grassy cliff so steep that steps have 

 been dug in it to facilitate climbing. Then follows some 700 feet of irregular but 

 very steep slope, in which the easiest depressions are sought, though the hill is 

 everywhere about as steep as a man can climb, and one who goes up it must cling to 

 the grass. Above this slope the drive reaches the back of the knife like ridge that 

 separates Palata from Zapalata. This widens out into an easy level plateau for about 

 20 rods, marked with road skeletons. The elevation is 850 feet by Dr. Stejueger's map. 



Then follows a steep climb up gravel and clay, with scanty grass and heather, 

 worn into steps, the driveway bounded on the southwest by a slanting precipice that 

 lies above Sabatcha Dira. A steep shoulder of heather and small plants is followed 

 by a final climb into the clouds to the summit of the pass, 1,220 feet above the sea. 



From the summit an abrupt descent leads down a distance of 500 feet by a zigzag 

 trail as steep as a horse could pass over, strewn with gravel and covered with low 

 flowers, to the bed of a swift little brook. This stream flows down into a grassy basin, 

 the slope becoming less and less, the rye grass and putchki growing taller. At the 

 junction of this stream flowing into the little brook to the west this drive merges into 

 the one from Zapadni. 



The drive from Palata is not in any place so difficult as the gully just above 

 Zapadni, but it is hal f higher and twice as long a trip one could not take on horseback, 

 nor would it be easy to lead a horse over it. Comparing it with conditions on St. 

 Paul, the Palata Pass is as steep as the cone of Bogoslof, twice as high, and is without 

 water. Compared with the severest drive on St. Paul, it would stand as the ascent of 

 Mount Blanc to a walk in the park. It is a very fatiguing trip for a man. It took 

 me, walking rapidly, thirty eight minutes (deducting stops) from Palata to the grassy 

 level 860 feet; thence twenty-eight minutes to the top, 1,220 feet; fifteen minutes down 

 the upper slope, and fifteen more to Glinka. 



And yet, notwithstanding the severity of the drives of the Commander Islands, no 

 harm has resulted to the breeding herds of these islands from this cause. 



