THE SEA-OTTEll AND THE FUR-SEAL 135 

 and wet, becoming fewer and fewer, so that there were 

 not enough to work the ship properly. It ended on 

 one of the Commander Islands by the vessel being 

 lifted by the sea clear over a reef into calm water. 

 Bering died the island is named after him and the 

 survivors of the crew, building a boat from the materials 

 of the St.. Peter, arrived at Petropaulovsk on the 27th 

 of August, bringing with them a quantity of sea-otter 

 skins, which did more for discovery in those seas than 

 any imperial expedition. 



As the sable had brought about the conquest of 

 Siberia, so did the sea-otter lead to the seizure of the 

 islands of the Bering Sea and the coasts of Alaska. 

 Three years after the return of the survivors of the 

 St. Peter, Nevodtsikof wintered on one of the Aleutian 

 Islands, and in a few years the fur-hunters were at 

 their exterminating work over the whole chain. In 

 time the fur-seal attracted as much attention, and, with 

 Pribylov's discovery, in 1786, of its rookeries on the 

 islands named after him, the trade became of such 

 increasing importance as to endanger in our time the 

 peace of the world. Every one has heard of the wonder- 

 ful haunts and habits of that strange eared seal which 

 seems to have come from the south through the tropics 

 to breed in the coldest limit of its range, now almost 

 entirely on the Pribylovs and the Commanders ; how 

 it is pursued in skin boats and every sort of craft, and 

 scared in long lines to slaughter by clapping of boards 

 and bones and waving of flags and opening and shut- 

 ting of gingham umbrellas, until it promises to become 

 as extinct as S teller's sea-cow or as rare as the sea- 

 otter. 



