374 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



All this has no ofl'ect upon the seals ; they know that they are not disturbed, and the 

 rookery, the natives declare, has been slightly but steadily increasing. Therefore, 

 with regard to surveying and taking those boundaries assumed by the breeding seals 

 every year at that point of high tide and greatest expansion which they assume 

 between the 8th and 15th of July, it is an entirely practicable and simple task. You 

 can go everywhere on the skirts of the rookeries, almost withi u reaching distance, and 

 they will greet you with quiet, inoffensive notice, and permit close, unbroken obser- 

 vation when it is subdued and undemonstrative, paying very little attention to your 

 approach. 



YEARLY CHAJS^GES IN THE ROOKERIES. 



I believe the agents of the Government there are going to notice, every year, little 

 changes here and there in the area and distribution of the rookeries. For instance, 

 one of these breeding grounds will not be quite as large this year as it was last, 

 while another one opposite will be found somewhat larger and expanded over the 

 record which it made last season. In 1874 it was my pleasure and my profit to retra- 

 verse all these rookeries of St. George and St. Paul with my field notes of 1872 in my 

 hand, making careful comparisons of their relative size as recorded then and now. 

 To show this peculiarity of enlarging a little here and diminishing a little there, 

 so characteristic of the breeding grounds, I reproduce the following memoranda of 

 1874: 



Northeast Point, July IS, 1874. 



Contrast on St. Paul between 1872 and 1874 : Quite a strip of ground near Webster's 

 house has been deserted this season, but a small expansion is observed on Hutchin- 

 sons Hill. The rest of the ground is as mapped in 1872, with no noteworthy increase 

 in any direction. The condition of the animals and their young excellent. Small 

 irregularities in the massing of the families, due to the heavy rain this morning. 

 Sea lions about the same ; none, however, on the west shore of the j)oint. 



The aggregate of life on this great rookery is, therefore, about the same as in 

 1872. The holluschickie, or killable seals, hauling as well and as numerously as 

 before. The proportions of the different ages among them of 2, 3, and 4 year olds 

 pretty well represented. 



PoLAViNA, Jtdy IS, 1874. 



Stands as it did in 1872. Breeding and hauling grounds iu excellent condition; 

 the latter, on Polaviua, are changing from the uplands down upon Polavina sand 

 beach, trending for 3 miles toward Northeast Point. The numbers of the hollus- 

 chickie on this ground of Polavina, where they have not been disturbed for some 

 five years, to mention in the way of taking, do not seem to be any greater than they 

 are on the hauling grounds adjacent to Nortlieast Point and the village, from which 

 they are driven almost every day during this season of killing. I notice also this 

 remarkable characteristic of the holluschickie: No matter how cleanly the natives 

 may drive the seals off of a given piece of hauling ground this morning, if the weather 

 is favorable to-morrow will see it covered again just as thickly ; and thus they drive 

 in this manner from Zoltoi sands almost every day during the killing season, gener- 

 ally finding on the succeeding morning more or as many seals as they drove oft" the 

 previous dawn. This seems to indicate that the holluschickie recognize no particular 

 point as favored over another at the island when they land, which is evidently in 

 obedience to a general desire of coming ashore at such a suitable place as promises 

 no crowding and no fighting. 



LuKANNON AND Keetavie, July 19, 1874. 

 Not materially changed in any respect from its condition at this time in 1872. 



Garbotch, July 19, 1S74. 

 Just the same. Condition excellent. 



Eeef, July 19, 1874. 

 A slight contraction on the south sea margin of this ground compensated for by 

 fresh expansion under the blufts on the northwest side, not noteworthy in either 

 instance. Condition excellent. 



Nah Speel, July 20, 1874. 

 A diminution of one-half at least. Very few here this year. It is no place for a 

 rookery. Not a pistol shot from the natives' houses, and all of the natives' children 

 fooling over the bluff's. 



Lagoon, July 20, 1874. 

 No noteworthy change; if any, a trifling increase. Condition good. Animals 

 clean and lively. 



Tolstoi, July 21, 1874. 

 No perceptible change in this rookery from its good shape of 1872. The condition 

 excellent. 



