ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 25 



westward, and suspend themselves from the lofty cliffs of Einahnuhto, 

 dangling over the sea liy ropes, as their neighbors are only too glad 

 and willing to do at St. George. 



St. Paul. — A glance at the map of St. Paul shows that nearly half 

 of its superficial area is low and quite flat, not much elevated above 

 the sea. Wherever the sand-dune tracts are located, and that is right 

 along the coast, is found an irregular succession of hummocks and 

 hillocks, drifted by the wind, which are very characteristic. On the 

 summits of these hillocks the el,ymus has taken root in times past, 

 and as the sand drifts up it keeps growing on and up, so that the 

 quaint spectacle is presented of large stretches to the view, wherein 

 sand dunes, entirelj^ bare of all vegetation at their base and on their 

 sides, are crowned witli a living cap of the brightest gi-een — a tuft of 

 long, waving grass blades which will not down. None of this peculiar 

 landscaping, however, is seen on St. George, not even in the faintest 

 degree. Travel about St. Paul, with the exception of the road to 

 Northeast Point, where the natives take advantage of low water to 

 run on the hard, wet sand, is exceedingly difficult, and there are 

 examj)les of only a few white men who have ever taken the trouble 

 and expended the i)hysical energy necessary to accomi^lish the com- 

 paratively short walk from the village to Nahsayvernia, or the north 

 shore. Walking over the moss-hidden and slippery rocks, or tumbling 

 over slightly uncertain tussocks, is a task and not a ptleasure. On St. 

 George, with the exception of a half-mile path to tlie village cemetery 

 and back, nobody pretends to walk, except the natives who go to and 

 from the rookeries in their regular seal drives. Indeed, I am told 

 that I am the only white man who has ever traversed the entire coast 

 line of both islands. (See note, 39, E.) 



St. George. — Turning to St. George and its pr.ofile, presented by 

 the accompanying map, the observer will be struck at once by the 

 solidity of that little island and its great boldness, rising, as it does, 

 sheer and precipitous from the sea all around, except at the three 

 short reaches of the coast indicated on the chart, and where the only 

 chance to come ashore exists. 



The seals naturally have no such opportunity to gain a footing here 

 as they have on St. Paul, hence their comx3arative insignificance as to 

 number. The island itself is a trifle over 10 miles in extreme length, 

 east and west, and about 4:^ miles in greatest width, north and south. 

 It looks, when plotted, somewhat like an old stone ax; and, indeed, 

 when I had finished my first contours from my field notes, the ancient 

 stone-ax outline so disturbed me that I felt obliged to resurvey the 

 southern shore, in order that I might satisf}^ my own mind as to the 

 accuracy of my first work. It consists of two great plateaus, with a 

 high upland valley between, the western table-land di-opping abruptly 

 to the sea at Dalnoi Mees, while the eastern falls as precipitately at 

 Waterfall Head and Tolstoi Mees. There are several little reservoirs 

 of fresh water — I can scarcely call them lakes — on this island; pools, 

 rather, that the wet sphagnum seems to always keep full, and from 

 which drinking water in abundance is everywhere found. At Garden 

 Cove a small stream, the only one on the Pribilof group, empties into 

 the sea. 



St. George has an area of about 27 square miles; it has 20 miles of 

 coast line, of which only 2:^ are visited by the fur seals, and which is, 

 in fact, all the eligible landing ground afforded them by the structure 

 of the island. Nearly half of the shore of St. Paul is a sandy beach, 

 while on St. George there is less than a mile of it all put together, 



