154 ' ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



of man, tliey rapidly disappeared as he took possession of the land. 

 The disappearance, however, was not total — a few of them every year 

 were and can now be observed upon that little rocky islet, lying 6 

 miles to the southeast of the Northeast Point of St. Paul Island, 

 owing to its comparative isolation, since the natives only go there 

 once a year, and then only for a few days during the egging season.^ 



Selection of landings by w^alrus herds.— The walrus rests 

 uj)on the low rocky tables characteristic of this place, without being 

 disturbed; hence the locality afforded me a ijarti'cularly pleasant 

 and advantageous opportunity of minutely observing these animals. 

 My observations, perhaps, would not have passed over a few moments 

 of general notice, had I found the picture presented by them such as 

 I had drawn in my m'md from the descriptions of the army of writers 

 cited above; the contrary, however, stamping itself so suddenly and 

 decidedly upon my eye, set me to work with pen and brush in noting 

 and portraying the extraordinary brutes, as they lay gruuting and 

 bellowing, unconscious of my presence, and not 10 feet from the 

 ledge u})on which I sat.^ 



Life studies of the herd. — Sitting as I did to the leeward of 

 them, a strong wind blowing at the time from seavrard, which ever 

 and anon fairly covered many of them with the 'foaming surf spraj^, 

 they took no notice of me during the three or more hours of my study. 

 I was first surprised at observing the raw, naked appearance of the 

 hide, a skin covered with a multitude of i^ustular-looking warts and 

 large boils or pimples, without hair or fur, save scattered and almost 

 invisible hairs; the skin wrinkled in deep, flabby seam folds, and 



'As to the number of walrus on the Pribilof Islands In prehistoric time, and 

 when the Russians first took possession of the same. 1780-87, I have not l-een able 

 to find any record of the least authentic value. Beyond the general legend of the 

 natives that in olden times the "morsjee" were wont to haul in considerable num- 

 ber at Novashtoshnah and over the entire extent of the north and south shores of 

 St. Paul, while herds were also common under the precipitous sea walls of St. 

 George. Gavrila Sarietschev, one of the several imperial agents commissioned at 

 intervals to examine into the affairs of the old Russian- American Fur Company, 

 in the details of his report made in December, 18Uo, incidentally states, speaking 

 of the walrus, that while they had abandoned the Pribilof Islands then, yet 

 formerly they were there in siich numbers that 38,000 pounds of their teeth (tusks) 

 were obtained in a single year. As the average weight of well-assorted walrus 

 ivory is about 8 pounds to the head of each animal, this memorandum of tiie agent 

 shows that between t3.500 and 4,000 walrus were taken then. From the quantity 

 of old bones of Rosmarii, which are constantly covered and uncovered by the 

 caprice of the wind at Nahsayvernia and Novastoshnah, I should judge the Rus- 

 sian officer was correct. 



'These favored basaltic tables are also commented tapon in similar connection 

 by an old writer in 1775, Shuldham, who calls them "echouries; " he is describ- 

 ing the Atlantic walrus as it ajipears at the Magdalen Islands: " The echouries 

 are formed principally by nature, being a gradual slope of soft rock, with which 

 the Magdalen Islands aboimd, about 80 to 100 yards wide at the water side and 

 spreading so as to contain near the summit a very considerable number." The 

 tables at Walrus Island and those at Southwest Point are very much less in area 

 th;-n those described by Shuldham, and are a small series of low, sawtooth jetties 

 of the harder basalt washed in relief from a tufa matrix. There is no room to the 

 landward of them for many walruses to lie upon. The Odobceiius does not like to 

 haul up on loose or shingly shores, because it has the greatest difficulty in getting 

 a solid hold for its fore flippers with which to pry up and ahead its huge, clumsy 

 body. When it haiils on a sand beach, it never atteinyits to crawl out to the dry 

 region back of tlie surf, but lies just awash, at high water. In this fashion they 

 used to rest all along the sand reaches of St. Paul prior to the Russian advent in 

 1786-87; and when Shuldham vv'as inditing his letters on the habits of Rosntanis. 

 Odobcenus was then lying out in full force and great physical peace on the Pribilof 

 Islands. 



