226 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



Turning to St. George and its profile, presented by the accom- 

 panying map, the observer will be struck at once by the solidity of 

 that little island and its great boldness, rising, as it does, sheer and 

 precipitous from the sea all around, except at the three short 

 reaches of the coast indicated on my chart, and where the only 

 chance to come ashore exists. 



The seals naturally have no such opportunity to gain a footing 

 here as they have on St. Paul, hence their comparative insignificance 

 as to number. The island itself is a trifle over ten miles in ex- 

 treme length, east and west, and about four and a quarter miles in 

 greatest width, north and south. It looks, when plotted, somewhat 

 like an old stone axe ; and, indeed, when I had finished my initial con- 

 tours from my field-notes, the ancient stone-axe outline so disturbed 

 me that I felt obliged to resurvey the southern shore, in order that 

 I might satisfy my own mind as to the accuracy of my first work. 

 It consists of two great plateaus, with a high upland valley between, 

 the western table-land dropping abruptly to the sea at Dalnoi 

 Mees, while the eastern falls as precipitately at Waterfall Head 

 and Tolstoi Mees. There are several little reservoirs of fresh 

 water I can scarcely call them lakes on this island ; pools, rather, 

 that the wet sphagnum seems to always keep full, and from which 

 drinking-water in abundance is everywhere found. At Garden 

 Cove is a small, living stream : it is the only one on the Pribylov 

 group. 



St. George has an area of about twenty-seven square miles ; it 

 has twenty-nine miles of coast-line, of which only two and a quarter 

 are visited by the fur-seals, and which is in fact all the eligible 

 landing-ground afforded them by the structure of the island. 

 Nearly half of the shore of St. Paul is a sandy beach, while on St. 

 George there is less than a mile of it all put together, namely : a 

 few hundred yards in front of the village, the same extent on the 



during my four seasons of inspection, they never have got much, under the 

 best of circumstances, on either island. They pay little attention to it now, 

 and gather what they do during the winter season, going to Polavina and the 

 north shore with sleds, on which they hoist sails after loading there, and scud 

 home before strong northerly blasts. 



Captain Erskine informs me that the water is free and bold all around the 

 north shore, from Cross Hill to Southwest Point ; no reefs or shoals up to with- 

 in half a mile of land anywhere. English Bay is very shallow, and no sea- 

 going vessel should attempt to enter it that draws over six feet. 



