REPOET OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 77 



(ii.) Sfarri/ Arfeel RooJcery. — The ground here occupied by the breed- 

 ing seals is a particularly steep slope, which faces to the eastward and is 

 broken off at one side, to the north, by the shore cliff, which prevents 

 the seals when they land from reaching the breeding grounds directly. 

 (iii.) North Kool-ery. — This is the most important breeding 

 40 ground on St. George Island, and irregularly occupies nearly a 

 mile of the shore. It is supposed to contain about half the entire 

 number of seals resorting to this island. The shore is here character- 

 ized by low irregular cliffs, with occasional breaks which afford access 

 to the low plateau above. Most of the breeding seals are, however, 

 strung along not far from the sea, and gather into larger groups wher- 

 ever the width of the lower rocky shore is greatest. 



(iv.) Little Eastern Rooli'ery is compaiatively small, and occupies a 

 piece of shore not unlike that of many parts of North Rookery. 



(v.) Great Eastern Boolcery. — This rookery spreads at its western end 

 part- way up the slopes of a steep and somewhat rocky hill, while its 

 eastern end runs along the base of the rather high cliffs, on a very rough 

 and rocky beach forming there a narrow strip just above the wash of 

 the sea. 



258. An examination of the various rookeries on the Pribyloft' Islands 

 alone, is sufficient to show that the seals are by no means exacting in 

 regard to the precise character of the ground occupied. They do not 

 require a southern or a northern aspect, and the statement that they 

 land naturally upon the first part of the coast reached on their course 

 from south to north is contradicted by the position of most of the rook- 

 eries of St. George Island. Nor do they api)ear to seek specially either 

 sheltered or exposed situations, though most of the rookery sites are of 

 the latter character. Their breeding ground may be nearly flat, or very 

 steeply inclined, aiid on it they may be exposed to the driving spray 

 from the waves or removed to some distance from the sea and at some 

 height above it. The feature most peculiar to the rookery grounds, and 

 common to most of them, is the profusion of detached angular masses 

 of rock, which depends upon the ease with which the basaltic rocks of 

 the Pribyloff" Islands break up into such blocks under the local climatic 

 influences. But this cannot be assumed to be an essential requirement 

 of the seals, for they are found to be equally at home on beds of well 

 water- worn boulders and on flats and slopes locally free from stones or 

 rocky projections. 



259. Most of the rookeries on the Pribyloff Islands are characterized 

 by extensive off'-lying beds of kelp, which indicates a gradually shelv- 

 ing rocky bottom, aiul implies that) any very heavy sea will be broken 

 and reduced in force before it actually falls upon the land. This may 

 be a desideratum, but it is not a necessity, as some examples show, and 

 tlie kelp-beds are by no means confined to those parts of the shores 

 adjacent to the rookeries. 



200. It appears possible to mention only two conditions which have 

 been avoided by the seals in the choice of their rookery grounds: these 

 are mud and loose sand. On muddy ground the fur is doubtless apt to 

 become uncomfortably clotted, and the sand if driven by the wind or 

 splashed about by rain is probably also irritating to them. Shifting 

 sandy ground besides renders the always clumsy locomotion of the seal 

 when upon the land additionally difilcult; but it may be noted that 

 sandy beaches appear to be well liked by the seals when they haul out 

 temporarily, and are not actually established for breeding purposes. On 

 most of the rookery grounds, away from the actual beach, the character 

 of the soil is such that it becomes beaten down between the projecting 



