24 ALASKA. INDUSTRIES. 



fresh Avater on it. In a fog it makes an ngly neighbor for the sea cap- 

 tains when they are searching for St. Paul; they all know it, and they 

 all dread it. It is not resorted to by the fur seals or by sea lions in 

 particular; but, singularly enough, it is frequented by several hun- 

 dred male walrus, to the exclusion of females, every summer. A few 

 sea lions, but only a very few, however, bi-eed here. On account of 

 the rough weather, fogs, etc., this little islet is seldom visited by the 

 natives of St. Paul, and then only in the egging season of late June 

 and early July; then that surf -beaten rock literally swarms with 

 breeding w^aterfowl. 



This low, tiny, rocky islet is, perhaps, the most interesting single 

 spot now known to the naturalist, who may land in northern seas, to 

 study the habits of bird life; for here, without exei'tion or risk, he can 

 observe and walk amoug tens upon tens of thousands of screaming 

 waterfowl, and as he sits down upon the polished lava rock, he becomes 

 literally ignored and environed by these feathered friends, as they 

 reassume their varied positions of incubation, which he disturbs them 

 from by his arrival. Generation after generation of their kind have 

 resorted to this rock unmolested, and to-day, when you get among 

 them, all doubt and distrust seems to have been eliminated from their 

 natures. The island itself is rather unusual in those formations which 

 we find peculiar to Alaskan waters. It is almost flat, with slight, irreg- 

 ular undulations on top, spreading over an area of 5 acres, perhaps. 

 It rises abruptly, though low, from the sea, and it has no safe beach 

 upon which a person can land from a boat; not a stick of timber or 

 twig of shrubbery ever grew upon it, though the scant presence of low, 

 crawling grasses in the central portions prevents the statement that 

 all vegetation is absent. Were it not for the frequent rains and dis- 

 solving fog, characteristic of summer weather here, the guano accumu- 

 lation would be something wonderful to contemplate — Peru would 

 have a rival. As it is, however, the birds, when they return, j^ear 

 after year, find their nesting floor swept as clean as though they had 

 never sojourned there before. The scene of confusion and uproar 

 that presented itself to my astonished senses when I approached this 

 place in search of eggs, one threatening, foggy Jul}^ morning, may be 

 better imagined than described, for as the clumsy bidarrah came under 

 the lee of the low cliffs, swarm upon swarm of thousands of murres or 

 " aries " dropped in fright from their nesting shelves, and before they 

 had control of their flight they struck to the right and left of me, like 

 so many cannon balls. I was forced, in self -protection, to instantly 

 crouch for a few moments under the gunwale of the boat until the 

 struggling, startled flock i^assed, like an irresistible, surging wave, 

 over n\y head. Words can not depict the amazement and curiosity 

 with which I gazed around, after climbing up to the rocky plateau 

 and standing among mja-iads of breeding birds, that fairly covered 

 the entire surface of the island with their shrinking forms, while others 

 whirled in rapid flight over my head, as wheels within wheels, so 

 thickly interrunning that the blue and gray of the sky was hidden 

 from my view. Add to this impression the stunning whir of hundreds 

 of thousands of strong, beating wings, the shrill screams of the gulls, 

 and the muffled croaking of the "aries," coupled with an indescrib- 

 able, disagreeable smell which arose from the broken eggs and other 

 decaying substances, and a faint idea may be evoked of the strange 

 reality spread before me. Were it not for this island and the ease 

 With which the natives can gather, in a few hours, tons upon tons of 

 sea-fowl eggs, the people of the village would be obliged to go to the 



