40 THE FUR SEALS OP THE PRII3ILOF ISLANDS. 



Beef and Gorbatch rookeries are in reality one great breeding ground. They 

 represent a total population, including Ardiguen and Sivutch Rock, of about 70,000 

 seals. 



10. Spilki (the points}. This is the abandoned rookery space, which formerly* 

 occupied the slope and beach of the hill back of the village of St. Paul. The 

 ground was occupied until about ten years ago as a rookery, when it was gradually 

 abandoned. 



11. Lagoon. This rookery is separated from the site of Spilki by a short stretch 

 of sand beach and the narrow channel connecting the salt lagoon with the village 

 cove. It is situated on a long reef of coarse bowlders, which has been gradually 

 pushed up by the ice until it has almost completely shut off the lagoon from the sea. 

 The rookery is a small one, having a population of only about 0,000 seals. There is 

 a small hauling ground on the rear or lagoon side of the reef, but no drives are made 

 from it. 



12. Tolstoi (thick). From the angle of the reef on which Lagoon rookery is located 

 the cliffs rise abruptly, leaving but little beach. At the bold point of Tolstoi Mys 

 or headland the rookery of this name begins, extending along the southern curve of 

 English Bay to the great sand beach at its foot. For <i considerable distance the 

 harems lie on the narrow beach at the foot of steep cliffs. About the middle of the 

 rookery the cliffs break down in a long concave slope strewn with angular bowlders. 

 Back of this are sand dunes, and the wash from them has produced at the foot of 

 the slope a broad sand flat just above the bowlder beach. 



This sand tract of Tolstoi has a denser population than is to be found on any other 

 rookery ground on the island. In the height of the season the crowded area is the 

 scene of constant fighting among the bulls because of the crowding of the harems. 

 The breeding mass extends part way up the slope, and in the latter part of the season 

 the seals move back from the sandy flat, leaving it bare. 



At the back of the slope among the sand dunes is a hauling ground for the 

 bachelors. To reach it they must encircle the end of the rookery. A more important 

 hauling ground is situated on the sand of English Bay, just beyond the rookery. 

 Halfway along the curve of the bay is another hauling ground, known as Middle Hill, 

 which is removed from any rookery and is probably more or less common to all the 

 breeding grounds about English Bay. 



On the whole Tolstoi is the most interesting of the rookeries, and offers the 

 greatest diversity of conditions of life. It is also famous for the great mortality 

 among the young pups born there. The view of the rookery from the sand dunes 

 to the eastward is exceedingly picturesque. 



13. Zapadni (westerly). This rookery, begins at the rocky cliffs of Zapadni 

 headland and extends along the convex shore to the sand beach of Southwest Bay. 

 It occupies the usual bowlder beach and extends back along the gradually sloping 

 upland. The seals are in many places massed in shallow depressions and gullies 

 which seam the rocky slope. In these places, as on the sand flat of Tolstoi, many 

 pups are killed. At different places in the course of the rookery are runways through 

 which the bachelors haul out to their grounds in the rear. The principal hauling 

 ground, however, is at the angle of the rookery with the sand beach of Southwest Bay. 



14. Little Zapadni. The sand beach of Southwest Bay intervenes between this 

 rookery and Zapadui proper. It occupies a similar but smaller convex beach and 



