THE ROOKERIES OF ST. PAUL. 39 



north it slopes back gradually to the water. This northern slope and such other 

 points on its surface as are accessible, are occupied by a small rookery of three or four 

 thousand seals. At either end of the islet is a hauling ground. On the southernmost 

 one the returning bachelors are said to haul out first in the spring. 



Six miles farther off to the south lies the larger islet called Otter Island. This 

 is not a rookery proper, but contains a hauling ground, and is resorted to by bachelors, 

 probably from the rookeries of Keef peninsula. A few seals still haul there, and 

 during the season of 1896 a single harem of five cows with their pups was found 

 among them. This is the first record of breeding seals having occupied Otter Island. 

 No trace of the harem was found during the season of 1897. The hauling ground, 

 which lies on the northern face of the island, is one of considerable extent, and in 

 former times a large number of seals evidently occupied it. About 200 were found 

 there at the time of our visit in 189G, and upward of a thousand in 1897. 



8. Ardiguen (pile of stones). On the western edge of Eeef peninsula, and just 

 north of the ultimate point, is an isolated concave rocky slope and beach overlooked 

 by high parapet-like cliffs, above the general level of Reef rookery, to the surface of 

 which the breeding ground ascends at one point in a "slide." The rocky beach, the 

 slide, and, in 1890, a part of the flat above were filled with harems. Other harems 

 extended along the narrow beach at the foot of the cliff, which everywhere rises sheer 

 from the western end of the peninsula. The wall-like rocks above the slide portion of 

 the rookery make it possible to watch the seals at close range without disturbing them. 

 It is the best point on the island for the observation of rookery life. Almost daily 

 observations, a record of which will be found in the Daily Journal (Part II), were made 

 upon it during the summer of 1896, and on this account it has been given a separate 

 name. It has heretofore been included in Reef rookery. 



9. (rorbatch (the hump). This picturesque rookery lies on the north shore of Reef 

 peninsula and faces Zoltoi Bay. The steep cliffs on the western end, at Gorbatch 

 Point, break down in a long cinder slope, which rises rather steeply from the 

 shingle beach to the parade ground above. Along the bowlder beach and the foot 

 of the slope the harems lie close together, extending back at one or two points in 

 wedge-shaped masses. On the flat rocks at the point marking the beginning of the 

 bay is a favorite sleeping place for a few sea lions, and near by is an isolated rock on 

 which a small group of hair seals are usually to be seen hauled out. 



To the northward the cinder slope shades into a slope of smooth rock, and this is 

 succeeded in turn by a slope covered with great irregular bowlders. At the end of 

 this an abrupt cliff begins, and the rookery terminates in a long belt of harenis on the 

 narrow beach at its foot. At the angle, where the cliff breaks down suddenly into 

 the sand beach of the bay, is the famous hauling ground known as Zoltoi, (golden) 

 (more correctly spelled Zolotoi), from its yellowish lava sands. This is the only 

 hauling ground for Gorbatch rookery, and in the days when the shores of the Reef 

 rookery were packed with harems it was practically the only hauling ground for the 

 two rookeries. Across the neck of the peninsula, which is here very narrow, is a small 

 cove-like beach frequented by bachelors, probably from the Reef rookery. 



The nearness of Zoltoi to the village (about one-fourth of a mile away) has brought 

 its herds under constant inspection. The earliest and latest drives are always made 

 from this point. 



