EXPLANATORY NOTES AND COMMENTS UPON THE MAP OF ST. GEORGE ISLAND. 



St. George. — This title was given to the island by its discoverer in honor of his vessel, the sloop "St. George". 

 Salient features of the topography: Inaccessible character of the coast. — The profile which I give of this island presents 

 clearly the idea of that characteristic, cold, abrupt elevation of St. George from the sea. From the Garden cove around to Zapadnie 

 beach, there is not a single natural opportunity for a man to land; then, again, from Zapadnie beach round to Starry Ateel there is not 

 one sign of a chance for an agile man to come ashore and reach the plateau above. From Starry Ateel to the Great Eastern rookery there 

 is an alternation, between the several breeding-grounds, of three low and gradual slopes of the land to sea-level; these, with the landing 

 at Garden cove and at Zapadnie, are the only spots of the St. George coast where we can come ashore. An active person can scramble 

 up at several steep places between the Sea Lion rookery and Tolstoi Mees, but the rest of that extended bluffy sea-wall, which I have just 

 defined, is wholly inaccessible from the water. A narrow strip of rough, rocky shingle, washed over by every storm-beaten sea, is all that 

 lies beneath the mural precipices. 



Pretty cascade at Waterfall head. — In the spring, when the snow melts on the high plateau, a beautiful cascade is seen at 

 Waterfall head; the feathery, filmy, silver ribbon of plunging water is thrown out into exquisite relief by the rich background of that 

 brownish basalt and tufa over which it drops. Another pretty little waterfall is to be seen just west of the village, at this season 

 only, where it leaps from a low range of bluffs to the sea; the first named cascade is more than 400 feet in sheer unbroken precipitation. 



One or two small, naked, pinnacle rocks, standing close in, and almost joined to the beach at the Sea Lion rookery, constitute the only 

 outlying islets or rocks; a stony kelp bed at Zapadnie, and one off the Little Eastern rookery, both of limited reach seaward, are the 

 only hinderances to a ship's sailing boldly round the island, even to scraping the bluffs, at places, safely with her yard-arms. I have 

 located the Zapadnie shoal by observation from the bluffs above; while Captain Baker, of the "Reliance", sounded out the other. 



Authorities for latitude and longitude. — The observations which fix the positions of Tolstoi and Dalnoi Mees are taken from 

 Russian authority (Captain Arehimandritov), while the location of the village was made by Lieutenant Washburn Maynard and myself, in 

 1874, together with the degrees of variation to the compass ; wo used an artificial horizon; the overcast weather prevented our verification of 

 the two other points given. 



Trend of ocean currents here. — Although small quantities of drift-wood lodge on all points of the coast, yet the greatest amount 

 is found on the south shore, and thence around to Garden cove; this drift-timber is usually wholly stripped of its bark, principally pine 

 and fir sticks, some of them quite huge, 18 inches to 2 feet in diameter. Several years occur when a large driftage will be thrown or stranded 

 here; then long intervals of many seasons will elapse with scarcely a log or stick coming ashore. I found at Garden cove, in June, 1873, 

 the well preserved husk of a cocoanut, east up by the surf on the beach; did I not know that it was most undoubtedly thrown over 

 by some whaler in these waters, not many hundred miles away at (lie farthest, I should have iudulged in a pretty reverie over its path 

 in drifting from the South seas to this lonely islet. I presume, however, that the timber, which the sea brings to the Pribylov islands, is 

 that borne down upon the annual Hoods of the Kuskokvini and Nushagak rivers, on the mainland, and to the east-northeastward, a little 

 more than 225 miles ; it comes, however, in very scant supply. I saw very little drift-wood on St. Matthew island ; but on the eastern 

 shore of St. Lawrence there was an immense aggregate, which unquestionably came from the Yukon mouth. 



Spot of Pribylov's landing.— One of the natives, "stareek", Zachar Oostigov ("the president"), told me that the "Russians, when 

 they first lauded, came ashore in a thick fog", at Tolstoi Mees, near the present Sea Lion rookery site. As the water is deep and bold 

 there, Pribylov's sloop, the "St. George", must have fairly jammed her bowsprit against those lofty cliffs ere the patient crew had 

 intimation of their position. The old Aleut then showed me the steep gully there, up which the ardent discoverers climbed to the plateau 

 above; and to demonstrate that he was not chilled, or weakened by age, he nimbly scrambled down to the surf below, some 350 vertical 

 feet, and I followed, half stepping and half sliding over Pribylov's path of glad discovery and proud possession, trodden one June day by 

 him, nearly a hundred years ago. 



Suggestions for better loading and discharging a cargo. — With regard to the loading and unloading of the vessels at St. George, 

 1 believe that it would be wise and economical to grade a wagon-road over from the village to Garden cove ; I think so because weeks and 

 weeks consecutively have passed, to my personal knowledge, between the unloading and the loading of the steamer; when, during all 

 that season of weary, anxious waiting for the surf to quiet down at the village landing, there was not a single day in which the ship 

 could not have discharged or received her cargo easily and expeditiously on the sand beach at Garden cove. When the "St. Paul" lias 

 75,000 seal-skins in her hold, taken on at the larger island, then has to pound " off and on " here, in fog and tempest, for a week or two, 

 or even longer, waiting for a chance to get the 20,000 or 25,000 St. George skins (ready for her) in turn, her cargo is too costly to risk in 

 this manner, inasmuch as the difficulty can be readily obviated by the cart-road I have indicated. The natives could and would hitch 

 themselves into huge hand-carts, and thus draw the skins across and supplies back, with the aid of a mule or two on the stilt' grade; this 

 would occur in ascending Ahluekeyak ridge from the village, and also up a short one again rising from Garden cove to the mesa tops. 

 The distance is only 2f to 3£ miles, and 2 miles of that is nearly fit for wheels, as it lies to-day. I think, seriously, this should be done; 

 it may save or prevent in the future the loss of a valuable ship and her priceless cargo of human life and all its belongings. Thick 

 togs and howling gales of wind, are dangerous and chronic here. 



What the sketch-map snows.— The sketch-map of Alaska, which I have inserted in the lower corner of this chart of St. George, 

 is to show, better than any language can, the relative position of these celebrated seal-islands; and also to give a clear idea of their 

 isolation and great distance from Sitka, where most of our people think all Alaska is centered. In fact, Sitka, as far as trade and resources 

 and population are concerned, is one of the most insignificant spots known to that country. Kadiak, Oonga, Belcovskie, and 

 Oonalashka each have a greater civilized population than has Sitka to-day, and each has a hundred-fold more importance as a trade-center. 

 As the ship sails, the Pribylov islands are: 



2,250 miles W. X.W. from San Francisco. 



1,500 miles \V. N.W. from Vancouver island, straits of Fuca. 



1.1 uiles W.'N.W. from Sitka. 



550 miles W. N.W. from Kadiak. 



192 miles W. N.W. from Oonalashka. 



Ton miles 'VV . A . W. from Commander islands, Russian territory. C, 1*4, P 

 All these distances are via Oonalashka, save the last one. 



