WONDERFUL SEAL ISLANDS. 215 



but brilliant red and crimson fronds of Rhodospermce interwoven 

 with the emerald-green leaves of the Chlorospermce. The first- 

 named group is by far the most abundant, and upon its decaying, 

 fermenting brown and ochre heaps, he will see countless numbers 

 of a buccinoid whelk, and a limnaca, feeding as they bore or suck 

 out myriads of tiny holes in the leaf-fronds of the strong growing 

 species. Actinia or sea-anemones, together with asteroids or star- 

 fishes, Discophorce or jelly-fishes, are also interwoven and heaped up 

 with the "kapoosta" or sea-cabbages just referred to ; also, many 

 rosy " sea-squirts," yellow " cucumbers," and other forms of Holo- 

 th uridce. 



On the old killing-fields, on those spots where the sloughing 

 carcasses of repeated seasons have so enriched the soil as to render 

 it like fire to most vegetation, a silken green Confervce grows luxu- 

 riantly. This terrestrial algoid covering appears here and there, 

 on these grounds, like so many door-mats of pea-green wool. That 

 confervoid flourishes only on those spots where nothing but pure 

 decaying animal matter is found. An admixture of sand or earth 

 will always supplant it by raising up instead those strong growing 

 grasses which I have alluded to elsewhere, and which constitute the 

 chief botanical life of the killing-grounds. 



In order that the reader can follow easily the narrative of that 

 remarkable life-system which is conducted by the fur-seal as' it an- 

 nually rests and breeds upon the Pribylov group, I present a care- 

 ful chart of each island and the contiguous islets, which are the 

 only surveys ever made upon the ground. The reader will observe, 

 as he turns to these maps, the striking dissimilarity which exists be- 

 tween them, not only in contour but in physical structure, the 

 Island of St. Paul being the largest in superficial area, and receiv- 

 ing a vast majority of the Pinnipedia that belong to both. As it 

 lies in Bering Sea to-day, this island is, in its greatest length, be- 

 tween northeast and southwest points, thirteen miles, air-line ; and 

 a little less than six at points of greatest width. It has a super- 

 ficial area of about thirty- three square miles, or twenty- one thou- 

 sand one hundred and twenty acres, of diversified, rough and rocky 

 uplands, rugged hills, and smooth, volcanic cones, which either set 

 down boldly to the sea or fade out into extensive wet and mossy 

 flats, passing at the sea-margins into dry, drifting, sand-dune tracts. 

 It lias forty-two miles of shore-line, and of this coast sixteen and a 

 half miles are hauled over by fur-seals en masse. At the time of its 



