INVESTIGATIONS OF THE ALBATROSS. 35 



chis are favorite nesting-grounds for wild geese, and tlie natives of 

 Attn secure large numbers of them annually, smoking tliem for winter 

 use. The down is an article of trade. 



Halibut are taken in small quantities in the simng, and cod are found 

 at all seasons along the northern shores of Attn, in from 30 to 60 

 fathoms. The Atka mackerel is abundant from April to September, 

 and is an important article of food, either fresh, dried, or salted. They 

 school in and near the kelp beds, as at Atka, but run deeper and are 

 taken with gigs. The Annie, a small schooner, took 40 barrels of this 

 excellent fish in the summer of 1891, salting them as mackerel are 

 salted on the Atlantic coast, and sailed in August for San Francisco. 



The women are expert workers in grass, and the Attn baskets, etc., 

 briug a good price. It would be a source of considerable revenue if 

 they could be induced to manufacture it in sufficient quantities. 



Good water is to be had at all seasons of the year, and Attu has 

 become a favorite watering station for the western sealing fleet. In 

 August, 1S91, the schooners City of San Biego, Allie I. Alger, and Katy 

 Ann put in here for water on their return fi'om a raid on the rookeries 

 of the Commander Islands. The former reported a partial success, but 

 the others were driven off. 



The native hunters were interrogated concerning the movements of 

 fur seals, and were practically unanimous on the following points, viz: 



Fur seals are seldom seen about Attu, Agattu, and the Semichi 

 islands, and they have never been known to haul out except when 

 wounded. Two or three instances are remembered of wounded seals 

 having been shot while hauled out to rest. Twenty-five or thirty years 

 ago the older hunters recollected seeing them in small squads about the 

 kelp beds during the month of June, feeding on Atka mackerel. They 

 never saw any seals east of the Semichis, nor had they ever seen any 

 about during the winter season. 



It will be remembered that tlie Atka hunters did not believe that the 

 Pribilof herd used the passes west of Amukta Island; the Attu men 

 never saw fur seals east of the Semichi Group ; and the Albatross 

 experience in traversing the whole length of the Aleutian Archipelago, 

 from Unalaska to Attu, without seeing even a single individual, seems 

 to confirm the native belief that the Commander Islands herd does not 

 enter or leave the sea east of Attu and the Pribilof herd does not enter 

 or leave Avest of the Four Mountain Pass. 



Commander Islands. — The Albatross left Cldchngof Harbor at 6:55 p. 

 m., May 29, for the Commander Islands. No soundings had ever been 

 made between the Aleutians and the latter group, and it was a mooted 

 question whether they properly belonged to the Aleutian system or to 

 Kamchatka. To settle this interesting point, we ran a line of soundings 

 from Attn to Copper Island, the maximum depth of 1,996 fathoms being 

 found about 30 miles from the latter, which lies on the eastern verge 

 of the 100- fathom curve off the Kamchatka coast. 



