94 



ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



The scantiness of the St. George rookeries is due to the configuration 

 of the island itself.^ There are 5 separate, well-defined rookeries on 

 St. George, as follows: 



Zapadnie kookery. — Directly across the island, from its north 

 shore to Zapadnie Bay, a little over 3 miles from the village, is a 

 point where the southern bluff walls of the island turn north and drop 

 quickly down from their lofty elevation in a succession of heavj^ ter- 

 races to an expanse of rocky flat, bordered by a sea sand beach. Just 

 between the sand beach, howeve?, and these terraces is a stretch of 

 about 2,000 feet of low, rocky shingle, which borders the fiat country 

 back of it, and ui)on vv^hich the surf breaks free and boldly. Midway 



between the two points is the rookery, and a small detachment of it 

 rests on the direct sloijing of the bluff itself, to the southward, while 

 in and around the rookery, falling back to some distance, the "hol- 

 luschickie" are found. 



' Although this writing of Choris in regard to the subject is brief, superficial, 

 and indefinite, yet I value the record he made, because it is prima facie evidence, 

 to my mind, that had the fur seal been nearly as numerous on St. George then as 

 it was on St. Paul he would have spoken of the fact surely, inasmuch as he was 

 searching for just such items with which to illuminate his projected booK of travels. 

 The old Russian r&cord as to the relative number of fur seals on the two islands of 

 St. George and St. Paul is clearlj' as pa!])al)ly erroneous for 1H20 as I found it to be 

 in 1872, 1873. No intelligent steps toward ascertaining that ratio were ever taken 

 until I made my survey. ^ 



