THE RUSSIAN FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 39 



At the westeru end of the village is located the new government building with 

 otlices for the administrator and the doctor, and next to it the new school-house, both 

 rather large, but uninteresting, lead-colored structures (pi. 17^). In the center of tlie 

 village is located the company's dwelling-house for the agent (pi. ISa), painted a friendly 

 white and surrounded by the magazines, stores, stable, bathhouse, etc. Beyond is 

 the administrator's dwelling, unpretentious, but comfortable (i)l. ISh). The sod-huts 

 are rchigated to tlie rear, and, hardly ditt'ering from the surrounding grass, are very 

 inconspicuous (i)l. liih). 



At Sar(m)ia(\}\. 61) there is quite a village of small houses and huts for tiie women 

 in sunuaer, when they live there in order to put up tiie large salmon catch. A small 

 frame chapel was being l)uilt last year on the brow of tlie hill back of the village. 



The summer village at Sevvrnoye, or the Xorth Kookery, will be described under 

 the head of the latter. There was formerly also a temporary village at Staraya ( lavan, 

 to accommodate the i)eople during the planting and harvesting season, but a new one 

 has been built in its stead at Fedoskia, not far from Nikolski. 



SEAL ROOKERIES. 



It was on liering Island that Steller, in the spring of 1741, discovered for the first 

 time tlie rookeries and breeding grounds of the fur-seals, which he had previously 

 observed traveling northeastward toward unknown regions. His classical descriptions, 

 so well known to all naturalists, need not detain us here, except in so far as they relate 

 to the extent and location of the rookeries. Unfortunately, his works contain very 

 little bearing directly upon this question. In his "Beschreibung der Berings Insel" 

 (Neuste Nord. Beytnige, ii, 1793, p. 289) there are a few observations, however, which 

 throw some light on the subject. On the liOth and 30th of April (new style) the 

 shipwrecked crew had killed the first bulls just arrived. Steller at once concluded 

 that they had found the breeding habitat of these animals and hoped for more to 

 follow. He says: 



lu this hope we were not decoived, for numberless horJs soon followed, iilliug the entire i-oaat to 

 such an extent that one could not pass by without danger to life and limbs; nay, in some places where 

 they covered the whole shore we were often obliged to travel over the hills and rocky places. * » * 

 These aiiimala landed onlij on the southern aide of the island,^ opposite- Kamchatka, consequently at least IS 

 wersts from the nearest place to our dwellings. • » • [This was a long way to carry the big bulls, the 

 flesh of which, moreover, was very unpalatable.] But we soon discovered that another smaller kind 

 of fur-seal, grayish of color, which arrived with them in still greater numbers, had a much tenderer 

 and more palatable meat, without odor, which consequently could be eaten without nausea. Tl'e 

 discovered also a nearer road to these directly south from our dwellinys, scarcely more than half as long 

 as the former. 



From these quotations it is perfectly plain that at the time of the discovery of 

 Bering Island there were no breeding-grounds or rookeries on the east side of the 

 island; that there were well-tilled breeding-grounds on the \vest side; that these were 

 situated on the shore where now are located the few hundred females forming the 

 l^oludioimoye, or South, Rookery, and that vast niTuibers of bachelors hauled u]) in 

 Lissonkovaya Bay, where there are none now, nor have there been any apparently 

 within the memory of the natives residing on the island. 



' Steller applies the term "south side" to the entire shore, which from our better knowledge of 

 the topography of the island we would call the westeru shore. It is eviilent from various statements 

 in his works that ho did not visit the true northern shore between Cajje Waksell and Zapadui Mys. 



