366 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



THE GREAT EASTERN ROOKERY (1890). 

 [_Its condition and appearance July, 1890.'\ 



In 1873-74, this breeding ground ranked third in the list of five that 

 were found on the island of St. George. To-day, it seems to have been 

 the heaviest loser. It has literally dropped down to a mere skeleton of 

 its form in my early survey. That extended rocky flat from which the 

 rookery ground proper gently rises on the hill slope, was one of the most 

 attractive hauling grounds for the holluschickie on St. George, sixteen 

 years ago; now, its surface is covered with a most luxuriant turf — it 

 looks like a Kentucky blue-grass meadow ! 



I observed here in 1873-71 that a good many sea lions hauled out on 

 the beach curve, right under the rookery bluft's. These animals are very 

 much more numerous now, than then : not less than 500 of them being 

 lazily extended just above surf- wash here as I made my survey (July 

 20, 1890), their huge yellow bodies hauled out like Mississippi Eiver 

 steamboats on the levee at St. Louis. 



Detailed analysis of the survey of Great Eastern rookery, July 20, 1890. 



[Sea margin beginning at e and ending at f, 1,230 feet; sea margin beginning at b and ending at a 



2,040 feet.] 



Square feet. 



2,040 feet sea margin, a to b, with a straggling average depth of 5 feet (a 



very liberal estimate) 10, 000 



200 feet sea margin, f to g, with 30 feet average depth, massed 6, 000 



1,000 feet sea margin, g to e, with a straggling average depth too thin for 

 calculation, allowed 2, 000 



Total square feet 18,000 



making ground for 9,000 seals — bulls, cows, and pups — against a total of 

 25,250 in 1873-74. 



I think that this rookery presents the most eloquent illustration of 

 that ruin and demoralization wrought by the present order of scraping 

 the breeding lines on all the rookeries in getting the daily " drives" of 

 killable seals. It presents itself in this plain manner: In 1873 there 

 was only 900 feet of rookery sea margin here ; 200 feet of this total was 

 a solid massing of breeding seals, from the water uj)on the hillside, as 

 shown by the 1874 tint on the accomi^anying map. It was 200 feet deep 

 and contained 20,000 of the 25,000 seals, all told, that then existed at 

 this point. To-day there is 3,275 feet of rookery sea margin here: a 

 straggling, ragged belt, not even a full harem's width or depth, except 

 under that side-hill expansion between /and f/, where there is instead 

 of the 200 feet of massing cited above, only 30 feet of average depth. 



Thus it becomes entirely plain, upon the least study of this subject, 

 that the present order of raking and dinning, by which tbe hollus- 

 chickie are started out from the shelter of these breeding grounds 

 also starts the outlying cows and bulls and hustles them ofi'and down to 

 the water's edge. This, repeated day after day, has created that long 

 extension of over 3,000 feet to my sea margin of 1873-74 on this rookery, 

 while the seals themselves are barely one-third the number that they 

 were at first record. 



RECAPITULATION OF THE ESTIMATES OF NUMBERS OF SEALS. 



Below is a brief recapitulation of those figures made from my surveys 

 of the area and position of the breeding grounds of St. Paul Island 

 between the 10th and 18th of July, 1872: confirmed and revised to that 

 date in 1874; on St. George Island, July 12 to 15, 1873: confirmed and 

 revised to that date in 1874. Opposed to these tables are my figures 

 made July 10 to 16, 1890, on St. Paul Island, and July 19 and 20, 1890, 

 on St. George. 



