ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 203 



alike peculiar to each, while St. George is a trifle larger only than the 

 smaller Masafuera, with water bold and al)rnx)t all around about 

 them. 



The subtropical rookeries mere rocky breeding belts. — 

 The rookery sites of the fur seal are not located by any writer on 

 either island. I should judge from Walter's account that the entire 

 desolate south shore of Juan Fernandez was a belt of cliff-bound 

 breeding grounds, wliere tliese animals laid, as tliey do to-day, under 

 the bluff's on the Great Eastern rookery at St. George, and to which 

 spot none of the Dampier or Anson voyagers resorted. Indeed, from 

 all that I can learn of the physical structure of the islands to which 

 the southern fur seal repaired, the whole area presented suitable for 

 these creatures to breed upon was of this character, save that of the 

 Falkland Islands, no such ground in general topography as St. Paul 

 being known to the Antarctic, nor is it found elsewhere in the Arctic; 

 but St. George is the common type of the southern seal islands, as it 

 is also typical of the entire Aleutian chain and Alaska generally. 



Strange omission of Chaplain Walter. — The one queer thought 

 in my mind relative to this lengthy visit of Anson to Juan Fernandez 

 is that the historian, from whom I have quoted so liberally, should not 

 speak of the fur seal, for, thirty-two years prior to his landing, Cap- 

 tain Wood-Rogers, of the Duke, a privateer, touched here to recruit, 

 and found "Robinson Crusoe" Selkirk in lonely possession. That 

 sailor left with Rogers, February 12, 1709, and he gave quite a story 

 of his discovery of the seals, which is related by the captain. Curi- 

 ously enough, according to Selkirk, the time when the fur seal hauls 

 out to breed on Juan Fernandez is that season of the year when Anson 

 was there. Wood-Rogers reports him as saying, "Toward the end of 

 the month of June these animals come on shore to bring forth their 

 young, and remain to the end of September without stirring from the 

 spot and without taking any kind of nourishment." (Kerr: Collection 

 of Voyages, Vol. xi. ) 



Numbers op deadly enemies there : Sharks. — The time of breed- 

 ing, therefore, is about the same as in Bering Sea. Also, in this con- 

 nection, Commodoi-e Byron, who came, in his voyage round the world, 

 to Masafuera in 1765, seeking wood and water, says: 



Sunday, April 28, 1765. * * ■•" There was, however, another species of danger 

 here to v>^hieh our cork (surf) jackets afforded us no defense, for the sea abounded 

 with sharks of an enormous size, which, when they saw a man in the water, would 

 dart into the very surf to seize him. Our people, however, happily escaped them, 

 though they were many times very near. One of them, which was upward of 20 

 feet long, came close to one of the boats that was watering, and having seized a 

 large seal instantly devoured it at a mouthful, and I myself saw another of about 

 the same size do the same thing under the ship's stern. (Hawksworth: Voyages, 

 London, 1773, Vol. i, pp. 87-88.) 



No other mention of seals is made by him here at Masafuera. 



The voyage of Dampier. — Fifty-seven years prior to Chaplain 

 Walter's inspection and description of Juan Fernandez Capt. William 

 Dampier stopped here, also, to wood and to water and to rall}^ his crew 

 from scurvy.' He was making a "new voyage 'round the world," 

 sailing from England. He passed two weeks there in these exercises 

 of recuperation and refitting. The justly celebrated buccaneer delivers 

 himself in this terse strain : 



These [seals] at John Fernandos have fine thick short Furre: the like I have not 

 taken notice of any where but in these Seas. Here are always thousands. I might 

 possibly say millions of them, either sitting on the Bays, or going and coming in 

 the sea round the Island, which is full of them (as they lie at the top of the Water 



