40 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



The destiuctioii of this hauliuggrouiKl must be credited to the same parties 

 who accomplished the extermination of the sea-cow in tweuty-seveu years.' 



At the present day there are ouly two distinct rookeries on lieriug Ishiud, the 

 principal one being located on the Dorthern coast of the island, the other, a small 

 afl'air, ou the west coast. 



TUE NOKTH KOOKEKY. (Plate 7.) 



The great North liookevy {Sevcrnoye lezhbishtchc) in sitaatad on the northernmost 

 prolongation of the island (Severni Mys; also called Cape Yashin) about 11 miles 

 Irom the main village, Nikolski, and about 10 miles from the northwest cape, Zapadni 

 Mys. The north plateau of tlie island recedes here from the sea, leaving a broad, 

 level tundra, which slopes gently northward toward the sea, ending abruptly in a 

 steep escarpment, about 30 feet high, between which and the water a Hat beach, about 

 4(H) feet wide, extends all around the poiut. 



From this beach a long, rocky reef, of volcanic origin, extends for half a mile 

 nearly due north, ending in a somewhat isolated high rock, the so-called Sea-lion rock 

 (Sirutchi Knmen). The terminal half of this reef is very low and, with the exception 

 of the scattered larger rocks, under water at high tide; in fact, it requires very low 

 water to be able to walk out to the Sea-lion rock. The basal half is formed by a 

 slightly raised, long and narrow peninsula, about a cjuarter of a mile long by 4(M» feet 

 wide, the central portion of which constitutes a hard, gravelly beach about 10 feet 

 above mean tide, and gently sloping toward the water on both sides, and fringed, 

 except at the base, by the rocky reef. The northern two-thirds of this gravelly 

 central portion is covered with fragments of shells of mollusks and echinoderms, so 

 that it apijears ijuite white, for which reason this part of the rookery is often spoken 

 of as "the sands"; the basal third is covered with a very rank growth of Elymus 

 molliti, continuous with the fields of the same grass which line the inner portion of the 

 beach uji to the escarpment. The vegetation is now gradually extending in a wedge- 

 shaped point northward over the central part of " the sands." Several isolated 

 rucks surround the rookery on both sides, as well as numerous sunken reefs. 



From the base of the projecting point thus described, which is specifically desig- 

 nated as the Keef Kookery (liifovoyc hMnnhtchc), the coast trends east and is fringed 

 with the same rocky reef as the rookery itself; but tlie seals do not haul up on these 

 rocks, and they form no part of the rookery. The bay thus inclosed is comparatively 

 shallow and sheltered, forming the principal playing-ground of the ])uiis. Here they 

 learn to swim. Near the south shore the rocks mark off a series of shallow lagoons. 



From the western side of the " Reef Kookery," the base of which is here marked 

 ort' by a detached I'ock, called Bnbin, or Babiuski Kamen, the coast trends south- 

 southeast. The beach shows the same characteristics, viz, an inner grass-covered belt, 

 followed by a narrow, i^ebbly belt more or less whitened by broken shells and fringed 

 by an outer rocky reef, which by low water enibraces innumerable very shallow lagoons. 



The grassy belt is widest (fully 400 feet) toward the reef, and the escarpment is 

 here nearly obliterated by a little creek coming from the south. Its mouth is usually 

 dammed up by the pebbles and gravel thrown up by the sea, and the grassy belt in this 

 locality is therefore intersected by numerous connected pools of nearly stagnant water. 



'L. Stejoeger, How the Great Nortliern Sea Cow (Sytina) Became Estormiuated. 

 Naturalist, xxi, December, 1887, pp. 1047-1054. 



