82 



ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



southward and out at sea, is also covered with the black and yellow 

 forms of fur seals and sea lions. It is environed by shoal reefs, 

 rough and kelp-grown, which navigators prudently avoid. 



This rookery of the Reef proper has 4,016 feet of sea margin, with an 

 average depth of 150. feet, making ground for 301,000 breeding seals 

 and their young, Gorbotch rookery has 3,660 feet of sea margin, with 

 an average depth of 100 feet, making ground for 183,000 breeding seals 

 and their young; an aggregate for this great Reef rookery of 484,000 

 breeding seals and their young. Heavy as this enumeration is, yet the 

 aggregate only makes the Reef rookery third in importance, compared 

 with the others which we are yet to describe. 



Lagoon rookery, — We now pass from the Reef up to the village, 

 where one naturally would not expect to find breeding seals within 

 less than a pistol shot from the natives' houses ; but it is a fact, never- 

 theless, for on looking at the sketch map of the Lagoon rookery here- 

 with presented, it will be noticed that I have located a little gathering 

 of breeding seals right under the village hill to the westward of that 



place called Nah Speel. This is in itself an insignificant rookery and 

 never has been a large one, though it is one of the oldest on the island. 

 It is only interesting, however, superficially so, on account of its posi- 

 tion, and the fact that through every day of the season half the popu- 

 lation of the entire village go and come to the summit of the bluff, 

 which overhangs it, where they peer down for hours at a time upon 

 the methods and evolutions of the " kautickie" below, the seals them- 

 selves looking up with intelligent appreciation of the fact that, though 

 they are in the hands of man, yet he is wise enough not to disturb 

 them there as they rest. 



If at Nah Speel, or that point rounding into the village cove, there 

 were any suitable ground for a rookery to grow upon or sj)read over, 

 the seals would doubtless have been there long ago. There are, how- 

 ever, no such natural advantages offered them; what there is they 

 have availed themselves of. 



