190 BERING ISLAND. [chap. 



support to the inhabitants, and at the same time a fund of conver- 

 sation to enable them, in conjunction with tea and tobacco, to sus- 

 tain life through the winter until the 

 "killing season " commences. Before my 

 reader accompanies me across the 

 tundras to the rookery on the other 

 side of the island, a glance at the 

 habits and distribution of the anunal 

 is necessary to enable him to under- 

 -^ '#- stand the system upon which the 



annual " take " is worked. 



The fur seals, or more accurately 



ALEUT PIPE. 



speaking, the breeding-places of the 

 fur seals, are in the North Pacific confined to five islands. On 

 Masafuera and Juan Fernandez Islands off the coast of South 

 America a few skins are still taken, and in bygone days the South 

 Shetland, Crozet, and Falkland Islands were the resort of countless 

 thousands of these animals. But they are now nearly extinct, and 

 almost every sealskin that finds its way into the London market is 

 obtained upon one or other of the islands rented by the Alaska 

 Commercial Company. Copper and Bering Islands are by no means 

 the most important. By far the largest export is made from the 

 Pribylov group, two islands (St. Paul and St. George) in Bering's 

 Sea to the east and north of the Komandorskis, on which 100,000 

 skins are taken annually. Last, and of least importance, is Eobben 

 Island, the chief interest of which lies in its somewhat abnormal 

 situation as a breeding-ground — it being nearly 1000 miles distant 

 from the other seal islands. It is close to Cape Patience, on the 

 eastern shores of Saghalin, and the number of skins yearly obtained 

 from it is very small as compared with the yield of the Bering and 

 Pribylov groups. 



The sea-cat or sea-bear, as CallorJiinus has been familiarly 

 named by the seal-hunters, is a gregarious animal which disports 

 itself in the waters of the Pacific throughout the winter, and during 



