AMPHIBIAN MILLIONS. 319 



come to a basaltic ridge or back-bone over which the sand has been 

 rifted by strong winds, and which supports a rank and luxuriant 

 growth of the Elymus and other grasses, with beautiful flowers. 

 A few hundred feet farther along our course brings us in full view, 

 as we look to the south, of one of the most entrancing spectacles 

 that seals afford to man. We glance below upon and survey a 

 full sweep of the Reef rookery along a grand promenade ground, 

 which slopes gently to the eastward and trends southward down to 

 the water from its abrupt walls bordering on the sea to the 

 west ; it is a parade plateau as smooth as the floor of a ball-room, 

 2,000 feet in length, from 500 to 1,000 feet in width, over which 

 multitudes of " holluschickie " are filing in long strings or deploy- 

 ing in vast platoons, hundreds abreast, in an unceasing march and 

 countermarch. The breath that rises into the cold air from a hun- 

 dred thousand hot throats hangs like clouds of white steam in the 

 gray fog itself ; indeed, it may be said to be a seal-fog peculiar to 

 such a spot, while the din, the roar arising over all, defies adequate 

 description. 



We notice to our right and to our left an immense solid mass 

 of the breeding-seals at Gorbotch, and another stretching and 

 trending nearly a mile from our feet, far around to the Eeef Point 

 below and opposite that parade-ground, with here and there a 

 neutral passage left open for the "holluschickie" to go down and 

 come up from the waves. 



The adaptation of this ground of the Eeef rookery to the re- 

 quirements of the seal is perfect It so lies that it falls gently from 

 its high Zoltoi Bay margin, on the west, to the sea on the east, and 

 upon its broad expanse not a solitary puddle of mud-spotting is to 

 be seen, though everything is reeking with moisture, and the fog 

 even dissolves into rain as we view the scene. Every trace of vege- 

 tation upon this parade has been obliterated. A few tufts of grass, 

 capping the summits of those rocky hillocks, indicated on the east- 

 ern and middle slope, are the only signs of botanical life which the 

 seals have suffered to remain. 



A small rock, "Seevitchie Kammin," five or six hundred feet 

 right to the southward and out at sea, is also covered with the black 

 and yellow forms of fur-seals and sea-lions. It is environed by 

 shoal-reefs, rough and kelp-grown, which navigators prudently 

 avoid. 



At Lukannon and Ketavie there is a joint blending of two large 



