86 THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



commence with their birth apou the island and the beginning of their 

 migrations rather than at the end of some one of their annual rounds 

 away from home. 



Alexander Shyha,i). 226. I have never seen or heard of any fur-seal 

 rookery outside of Bering Sea. 



I have no knowledge of, and have never heard of, the existence of 



any fur-seal rookeriesin the Northern Hemisphere, 



j no. w. bmnh, p. 223. ot ^ er thjm tll0ge Qn the geal islailds of Bering Sea. 



I have never seen and have no knowledge of any fur-seal rookeries 

 in the region other than those on the Pribilof Is- 



z. L. Tanner, p. 485. lands, and have never seen fur-seals in any great 

 abundance save on and near said islands. 



In my twenty-three years' experience as a whaler in Bering Sea and 

 the North Pacific, during which time I visited 

 Daniel Webster, p. 180. every part of the coast surrounding these waters, 

 and my subsequent twenty-four years' experience 

 on the seal islands in Bering and Okhotsk seas, I have never known or 

 heard of any place where the Alaskan fur-seals breed except on the 

 Pribilof Group in Bering Sea. These islands are isolated and seem to 

 possess the necessary climatic conditions to make them the favorite 

 breeding grounds of the Alaskan fur-seals, and it is here they congre- 

 gate during the summer months of each year to bring forth and rear 

 their young. * * * 



Hair-seal and sea-lions haul out on the Islands and are seldom dis- 

 turbed, yet they will plunge into the water at 

 Danl. Webster, p. 182. once should they discover anyone upon their rook- 

 eries, but it is not so with the fur-seal. They 

 seem at home on the rookeries and hauling grounds, and they show a 

 degree of domestication seldom found among similar animals. 



ST. PAUL AND ST. GEORGE. 

 Page 91 of The Case. 



This little group of islets, consisting, in the order of their magnitude, 

 of St. Paul, St. George, Otter, and Walrus islands, 

 J. Stanley Brown, jp. 11. were created in the shallow waters of Bering Sea 

 by volcanic agency. Outpour upon outpour of 

 basaltic lava gave to St. Paul, low-lying sea margins which the waves 

 and ice ground into bowlders, pebbles, and sand, and distributed into 

 long reaches of sandy shore at several points. The island lies to day, 

 except for these minor changes, just as it was created. Cliffs are infre- 

 quent and there are from 20 to 25 miles of alternating areas of sand, 

 rocky ledges, and bowlder-covered shores that could be made available, 

 did an expanding herd demand it, for the uses of the seal. About 37 

 or 38 miles to the southeast lies the second largest of the group, St. 

 George, which, though formed in the same manner as its neighbor, has 

 nevertheless been so modified by orographic movement as to form a 

 stn >ng contrast to it topographically. Bold, towering cliffs are the rule, 

 low-lying shores are rare, and it can boast of only about 6 or 8 miles of 

 really satisfactory rookery space along the entire sea front. As a 

 natural result St. Paul can and does support a far greater seal popu- 

 lation than St. George. 



