130 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PKIBILOF ISLANDS. 



At the end of the grassy plain the course drops down over a short ledge of rocks, 

 some 3 feet in height, to a bowlder-covered area of about 200 yards in extent. This 

 area at first level falls in a gentle slope at the end to the level of Zoltoi sands. The 

 bowlders are large, smooth, and tiat, and the interspaces are filled with lava sand. 



Along the 400 yards of level sand beach is the hardest part of the drive. The 

 seals slip and sink in the loose sand. They do not mind the rocky and grass-grown 

 areas, but the sand worries them. This sandy area leads by a narrow passage, lined 

 on either side by sand dunes, to the grassy plain between East Landing and the little 

 pond at the foot of the village. This is the village killing ground. 



THE LENGTH OF THE DRIVE. 



The total length of Reef drive as paced off is about 5,031 feet. Its greatest 

 elevation is not over 75 feet, and the slopes are very gentle. The drive is usually 

 made in about two hours. In the preceding pages is given a detailed account of a 

 drive over this course witnessed on July 15. 



On none of the other drives of Pribilof Islands are there rocky areas such as 

 those described on the Keef. On Tolstoi and Middle Hill are short stretches of sand, 

 but they are of limited extent. With these exceptions, the driveways on St. Paul 

 are comparatively level and grassy throughout. The same is true for the long drives 

 of St. George. 



COMPARISON OF DRIVES. 



It is only necessary to contrast this drive from Keef, the longest and hardest on 

 St. Paul Island, though less than a mile in length, with the 12 miles which the seals 

 were forced to travel from Northeast Point in Russian times, or with the 5 and 6 miles 

 of travel from Zapadni aud Polovina of St. Paul, and Zapadni of St. George. That 

 no injury resulted to the seals from these early drives is clear from the condition in 

 which the herd was when it came into the possession of the United States. 



THE COMMANDER DRIVEWAYS. 



To appreciate the ease of the Pribilof Islands drives it is only necessary to 

 contrast them with those of the Commander Islands. The following description of 

 the driveways of Medui Island is quoted from Dr. Jordan's record in the Journal for 

 August 25, 1890: 



Zapadni driveway. The drive from Zapadni goes up from the stony beach between two towers of 

 rocks, climbing the gorge of a little brook which cuts into the bowlders and clay of the hillside, an 

 excessively hard, rough little gully, very difficult for a man to climb, there being small cascades and 

 wet clay in its course. The way is marked by road skeletons. After au ascent over ground of this sort 

 for 300 or 400 feet, more or less, the drive goes up through steep, grassy slopes, some of them of soft 

 clay, somewhat cut into rough steps by men's boots. The general character of the ground is unre- 

 lieved, although more or less broken by cross gullies and ridges. The final ridge is 760 feet above the 

 sea. On the Glinka side is a long slope, at first quite steep, everywhere grassy, and rather easy, but 

 marked with road skeletons, as it is very long. The rye grass grows rather longer below, and a little 

 stream has deep depressions, which serve as death traps, as the skeletons show, when the seals fail 

 in piles one over another. Above Glinka is a steep slide of yellow clay, from which the village is said 

 to have received its name. This slide must be a hard place for the seals. The seals (few in number) 

 that are released because too young or too old are allowed to go down to the .sea, whence they go back 

 to the west again. 



