322 HISTOEY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



to spend the winter. Naturally the Russians preferred to look for the supposed winter resting- 

 places of the fur-seal, and forthwith a hundred schooners and shallops sailed into storm and fog 

 to the northward occasionally, but generally to the southward, in search of this rumored breeding- 

 ground. Indeed, if the record can be credited, the whole bent of this Russian attention and search 

 for the fur-seal islands was devoted to that region south of the Aleutian Islands, between Japan 

 and Oregon. 



PKLBYLOV'S DISOOYEKY OP THE ISLANDS WHICH BEAK HIS NAME. It was not until 1786, 

 after more than eighteen years of unremitting search by hardy navigators, that the Pribylov Isl- 

 ands were discovered. It seems that a rugged Muscovitic " stoorman " or ship's " mate," Gehrman 

 Pribylov by name, serving under the direction and in the pay of one of the many companies at 

 that time engaged in the fur business, was much moved and exercised in his mind by the revela- 

 tions of an old Aleutian shaman at Oonalashka, who pretended to recite a legend of the natives 

 wherein he declared that certain islands in the Bering Sea had long been known to the Aleuts. 



Pribylov commanded a small sloop, the " Saint George,"which he employed for three succes- 

 sive years in constant, though fruitless, explorations to the northward of Oonalashka and Oouimak, 

 ranging over the whole of Bering Sea from the straits above. His ill-success does not seem strange 

 now, as we understand the currents, the winds, and fogs of those waters. Recently the writer has 

 been on one of the best-manned vessels that ever sailed from any port, provided with those charts 

 and equipped with all the marine machinery kuown to navigation, and that vessel has hovered for 

 nine successive days off the north point and around Saint Paul's Island, sometimes almost on the 

 reef, and never more than 10 miles away, without actually knowing where the island was. So 

 Pribylov did well, considering, when, at the beginning of the third summer's tedious search, in 

 July, 1780, his old sloop ran up against the walls of Tolstoi Mees, at Saint George ; and then, 

 though the fog was so thick that he could see scarce the length of his vessel, his ears were regaled 

 by the sweet music of rookeries wafted out to him on the heavy air. He then knew that he had 

 found the object of his search, and he at once took possession of the island in the Russian name 

 and that of his craft. 



But his secret could not long be kept. He had left some of his men behind him to hold the 

 island, and when he returned to Oonalashka they were gone. And, after the next season had 

 fairly opened, a dozen vessels were watchiijg him and trimming in his wake. Of course they all 

 found the island, and in that year, July, 1787, the sailors of Pribylov, on Saint George, while 

 climbing the bluffs and straining their eyes for a relief-ship, descried tbe low coast and scattered 

 cones of Saint Paul, 36 miles to the northwest of them. When they landed at Saint George, not a 

 sign nor a vestige of human habitation was found thereon ; but, during the succeeding year, as they 

 crossed over to Saint Paul and took possession of it, in turn, they were surprised at finding on the 

 south coast of that island, at a point now known as English bay, the remains of a recent fire. 

 There- were charred embers of driftwood, and places where grass had been scorched ; there was 

 a |>ipe, and a brass kuife handle, which, I regret to say, have long passed beyond the cognizance 

 of any ethnologist. This much appears in the Russian records. 



2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIBYLOV ISLANDS. 



The Pribylov Islands lie in the heart of Bering Sea, and are among the most insignificant 

 landmarks known to that ocean. They are situated 192 miles north of Oonalashka, 200 miles south 

 of Saint Matthews, and about the same distance to the westward of Cape Newenham on the main- 

 land. 



