74 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



an easy prey. Tliis being granted, it is, perhaps, a legitimate subject 

 of speculation what the conditions in the North Pacific were before the 

 present races peopled its shores and nearer islands, and more particu- 

 larly before the islands of the Aleutian chain were peopled. Dall has 

 shown it to be probable that even these islands were inhabited from a 

 very remote period, that the population was throughout of an Innuit 

 type, and that the occupation of the islands proceeded from east to 

 west.* It can scarcely be doubted that in still earlier times the fur- 

 seals resorted to many or to all of these islands at the breeding season, 

 but that as the islands became occupied successively by the predecessors 

 of the modern Aleuts, tliis animal, from the nature of its habits, was 

 the first to find them no longer safe or congenial. When discovered by 

 the Russians it was estimated that the population of the chain amounted 

 to 50,000, and in this fact alone a sufficient reason for the absence of 



breeding rookeries of the fur-seal is found. 

 44 249. The Pribyloff Islands are almost entirely, and the Com- 



mander Islands are chiefly, composed of rocks of volcanic origin, 

 but in this respect they are by no means singular, and no physical 

 characteristics dependent on this circumstance are ruling ones in respect 

 to their fitness as breeding i^laces, 



250. The Pribylofl" group consists of two rather large islands, St. 

 Paul and St, George, separated by a distance of about 39 miles, with 

 two small islets, Walrus Island and Otter Island adjacent to St. Paul. 

 Of these, Otter Island is about a mile in length, while Walrus Island 

 is a mere flat rock about a quarter of a mile in length. The seal rook- 

 eries are all situated either on St. Paul or St. George, and those on St. 

 Paul are considerably the more important. St. Paul Island is about 13 

 miles in length by 6 in breadth, while St. George Island is about 14 

 miles in length, by 5 miles in greatest breadth, with a somewhat infe- 

 rior area. 



251. As already stated, both are composed of volcanic rocks, prob- 

 ably referable to the latest stages of the Tertiary i^eriod, and consisting 

 largely of basalts or basalt-like rocks in the form of nearly horizontal 

 beds, often distinctly columnar where broken olf in clifts. There are, 

 however, certain beds of scoriaceous material which are included 

 between those representing originally molten matter. These islands 

 appear, in fact, to be the resiilt of old submarine volcanic eruptions, 

 spreading their material in ju^etty regular layers on the sea-bed, and 

 eventually rising above the surface of the shallow eastern plateau of 

 Behring Sea, either because of the mere accunuilation of material, or 

 perhaps more probably with the aid of a local elevatory movement of 

 somewhat later date. Since the original time of their appearance above 

 the sea, their margins have been worn into sea-clift's, or beaten back to 

 form stretches of sandy beach, by the action of the waves; but in con- 

 sequence of the absence of older rocks, most of the material for these 

 beaches, as well as that of the sand dunes which chai^cterize parts of 

 the coast (particularly on St. Paul Island) is not siliceous, but is com- 

 posed of the comminuted material of the local volcanic rocks. 



252. The surface of St. Paul may be described as (jonsisting of rounded 

 hills, of which the highest attains an elevation of about 600 feet, con- 

 nected by flat land, much of which is but little elevated above the sea. 

 Its shores are not often bold though forming cliffs of moderate height 

 in some xflaces, particularly about its western end. St. George is, on 

 the whole, considerably higher, and contains very little low or flat land. 



* "Contribifcions to North Americau Ethnology," vol. i. 



