WONDERFUL SEAL ISLANDS. 205 



enemy just referred to, flits about in large swarms, but it is inoffen- 

 sive, and seeks shelter in the grass. Several species of beetles are 

 also numerous here. One of them, the famous green and gold 

 "carabus," is exceedingly common, crawling everywhere, and is 

 just as bright in the rich bronzing of its wing-shields as are its 

 famous prototypes of Brazil One or two species of Itemosa, a 

 Cymindis, several representatives of the Aphidiphaga, one or two of 

 Dytiscidce, three or four Cicindelidce these are nearly all that I 

 found. A single dragon-fly, Perla bicaudata, flitted over the lakes 

 and ponds of St. Paul. The familiar form to our eyes, of the bum- 

 ble-bee, Bombus borealis, passing from flower to flower, was rarely 

 seen ; but a few are here resident. The Hydrocorisce occur in great 

 abundance, skipping over the water in the lakes and pools every- 

 where, and a very few species of butterflies, principally the yellow 

 Nymphalidce, are represented by numerous individuals. 



Aside from the seal-life on the Pribylov Islands, there is no in- 

 digenous mammalian creature, with the exception of the blue and 

 white foxes, Vulpes lagopus* and a lemming, Myodes obensis. The 

 latter is restricted, for some reason or other, to the Island of Si 

 George, where it is, or at least was, in 1874, very abundant. Its 



* Blue foxes were also, and are, natives of the Commander Islands. Stel- 

 ler describes their fearlessness when the shipwrecked crew of the St. Peter 

 landed there, November 6, 1741. 



In regard to these foxes the Pribylov natives declare that when the islands 

 were first occupied by their ancestors, 1786-87, the fur was invariably blue ; 

 that the present smoky blue, or ashy indigo color, is due to the coming of 

 white foxes across on the ice from the mainland to the eastward. The white- 

 furred mdpes is quite numerous on the islands to-day. I should judge that 

 perhaps one-fifth of the whole number were of this color ; they do not live 

 apart from the blue ones, but evidently breed "in and in." I notice that 

 Veniaminov, also, makes substantially the same statement ; only differing by 

 charging this deterioration of the blue foxes' fur to a deportation from out- 

 side of red foxes, on ice-floes, and adds that the natives always hunted down 

 these "krassnie peeschee " as soon as their presence was known; hence my 

 inability, perhaps, to see any sign of their posterity in 1872-76. 



The presence of these animals on the Pribylov Islands is a real source of 

 happiness to the natives, especially so to the younger ones. The little pup- 

 foxes make pets and playfellows for the children, while hunting the adults 

 during the winter gives wholesome employment to the mind and body of the 

 native who does so. They are trapped in common dead-falls, steel spring- 

 clips, or beaver traps, and shot. A very large portion of the gossip on the 

 islands is in relation to this business. 



