58 



THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



St. George. — St. George is now in order, and this island has only a trifling contribution for the grand total of 

 the seahlife; but small as it is, it is of much value and interest. Certainly Pribylov, not knowing of the existence 

 of St. Paul, was as well satisfied as if be bad possessed tbe boundless universe, when he first found it. As in the 

 case of St. Paul island, I have been unable to learn much here in regard to the early status of the rookeries, none 

 of the natives having any real information. The drift of their sentiment goes to show that there never was a great 

 assemblage of fur-seals on St. George; in fact, never as many as there are to-day, insignificant as tbe exhibit is, 

 compared with that of St. Paul. They say that, at first, the sea-lions owned this island, and that the Russians, 

 becoming cognizant of the fact, made a regular business of driving off the "seevitehie", in order that the fur-seals 

 might be encouraged to land. Touching this statement, with my experience on St. Paul, where there is no conflict 

 at all between the fifteen or twenty thousand sea-lions which breed around on the outer edge of the seal-rookeries 

 there, and at Southwest point, I cannot agree to the St. George legend. I am inclined to believe, however, indeed it 

 is more than probable, that there were a great many more sea-lions on and about St. George before it was occupied 

 by men — a hundredfold greater, perhaps, than now; because, a sea-lion is an exceedingly timid, cowardly creature 

 when it is in the proximity of man, and will always desert any resting place where it is constantly brought into 

 contact with him.* 



The scantiness of the St. George rookeries, is due to the configuration of the island itself.t There are five 

 separate, well-defined rookeries on St. George, as follows : — - 



Zapadnie rookery: — Directly across the island, from its north shore to Zapadnie bay, a little over three 



miles from the village, is a point where the southern 

 bluff-walls of the island turn north, and drop quickly 

 down from their lofty elevation in a succession of heavy 

 terraces, to an expanse of rocky flat, bordered by a sea 

 sand-beach; just between the S4nd- beach, however, 

 and these terraces, is a stretch of about 2,t)00 feet of 

 low, rocky shingle, which borders the flat country back 

 of it, and upon which the surf breaks free and boldly. 

 Midway between the two points is the rookery; and a 

 small detachment of it rests on the direct sloping of 

 the bluff itself, to the southward ; while in and around 

 the rookery, falling back to some distance, the "hol- 

 luschickie" are found. 



A great many confusing statements have been made 

 to me about this rookery — more than in regard to any 

 other on the islands. It has been said, with much 

 positiveness, that, in the times of the Russian rule, this 

 was an immense rookery for St. George; or, in other 

 words, it covered the entire ground between that low 

 plateau to the north and the high plateau to the south, 

 as indicated on the map; and it is also cited in pi'oof of 

 this that the main village of the island, for many years, 

 thirty or forty, was placed on or near the limited 

 drifting sand-dune tracts just above the plateau, to the 

 westward. Be the case as it may, it is certain that for 

 a great, great many years back, no such rookery has 

 ever existed here. When seals have rested on a chosen piece of ground to breed, they wear off the sharp edges of 

 fractured basaltic bowlders, and polish the breccia and cement between them so thoroughly and so finely that years 

 and years of chiseling by frost, and covering by lichens, and creeping of mosses, will be required to efface that record. 

 Hence I was able, acting on the suggestion of the natives at St. Paul, to trace out those deserted fur-seal rookeries 



* This si atement of the natives has a strong circumstantial backing by the published account of Choris, a French gentleman of leisure, 

 and amateur naturalist and artist, who landed at St. George in 1S20 (July) ; he passed several days off and on the land ; he wrote at short 

 length in regard to the sea-lion, saying "that tin- shores were covered with innumerable troops of sea-lions. The odor which arose from 

 them was insupportable. These animals were all the time rutting", etc., yet. nowhere does he speak in the chapter, or elsewhere in his 

 volume, of the fur-seal on St. George, but incidentally remarks that over on St. Paul it is the chief animal and most abundant. — Toyaije 

 Pittoresque an tour &u Mondr, lies Al4ov.tien.nes, pp. 12, 13, pi. xiv. 1822. 



Although this writing of Choris in regard to the subject is brief, superficial, and indefinite, yet I value the record he made, because it 

 is prima facie evidence, to my mind, that had the fur-seal been nearly as numerous on St. George then as it was on St. Paul, he would have 

 spoken of the fact surely, inasmuch as he was searching for just such items with which to illuminate his projected book of travels. The 

 old Russian record as to the relative number of fur-seals on the two islands of St... George and St. Paul is clearly as palpably erroneous for 

 1820, as I found it to be in 1872, 1873. No intelligent steps toward ascertaining that ratio were ever taken until I made my survey. 



