ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



93 



upon canvas — that amphibian host involved in tliose alternate rain- 

 how lights and blue-gray shadows of the fog. 



Recapitulation op the estimates op number op seals. — Below 

 is a recapitulation of these figures, made from my surveys of the area 

 and position of the breeding grounds of St. Paul Island, between the 

 lorh. and 18th of July, 1872, confirmed and revised to that date in 1874. 

 It is the first survev ever made on the island of its rookeries: 



Breeding grounds of the fur seal on St. Paul Island. 



Reef rookery 



Gorbotch rookery 



Lagoon rookery. - _. 



Nah Speel rookery 



Lukannon rookery 



Keetavie rookery " 



Tolstoi rookery 



Zapadnio rookery --. 



Polavina rookery _ 



Novastoshnah, or Northeast Point 



Total of breeding seals and young for St. Paul Island in 187i of 



Sea 

 margin. 



Feet. 

 4,016 

 3, (560 

 750 

 400 

 3,270 

 3,200 

 3,000 

 5,880 

 4,000 

 15,840 



Average 

 depth. 



Feet. 

 150 

 100 

 100 

 40 

 150 

 150 

 150 

 150 

 150 

 150 



Seals — 



male, 



female, 



and 

 young. 



301,000 

 183,000 

 37,000 

 8,000 

 170,000 

 165,000 

 235, 000 

 441, (KH) 

 300,000 

 1,2(X),U00 



3,030,000 



St. George. — St. George is now in order, and this island has only 

 a trifling contribution for the grand total of the seal life; but small 

 as it is, it is of much value and interest. Certainly Pribilof, not 

 knowing of the existence of St. Paul, was as well satisfied as if he had 

 possessed the boundless universe, wdien he first found it. As in the 

 case of St. Paul Island, I have been unable to learn much here in 

 regard to the early status of the rookeries, none of the natives having 

 any real information. The drift of their sentiment goes to show that 

 there never was a great assemljlage of fur seals on St. George — in fact, 

 never as many as there are to-day, insignificant as the exhibit is, com- 

 pared with that of St. Paul. They say that at first the sea lions 

 owned this island, and that the Russians, becoming cognizant of the 

 fact, made a regular business of driving off the " seevitchie," in order 

 that the fur seals might be encouraged to land. Touching this state- 

 ment, with my experience on St. Paul, where there is no conflict at 

 all between the 15,000 or 20,000 sea lions which breed around on the 

 outer edge of the seal rookeries there and at Southwest point, I can 

 not agree to the St. George legend. I am inclined to believe, how- 

 ever — indeed, it is more than probable — that there were a great many 

 more sea lions on and about St. George before it was occupied by men, 

 a hundredfold greater, perhaps, than now; because a sea lion is an 

 exceedingly timid, cowardly creature when it is in the proximity of 

 man, and will alwaj^s desert any resting place where it is constantly 

 brought into contact with him.^ 



' This statement of the natives has a strong circumstantial backing by the pub- 

 lished account of Choris, a French gentleman of leisure and amateur naturalist 

 and artist, who lauded at St. George in 1820 (July). Repassed several days off 

 and on the land; he wrote at short length in regard to the sea lion, saying •' that 

 the shores were covered with innumerable troops of sea lions. The odor which 

 arose from them was insupportal)le. These animals were all the time rutting," 

 etc. Yet nowhere does he speak in the chapter or elsewhere in his volume of 

 the fur seal on St. George, but incidentally remarks that over on St. Paul it is the 

 chief animal and most abundant. — Voyage Pittoresque au tour du Monde, lies 

 Aleoutiennes, ijp. 12, 13, PL XiV. 1822. 



