THE FUB SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 337 



brings us in full view, as we look to the sonth, of one of the most entrancing spectacles which seals 

 afford to man. We look down upon and along a grand promenade ground, which slopes gently to 

 the eastward, and trends southward down to the water from the abrupt walls bordering on the 

 sea on the west, over a parade-ground 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 deploying in vast platoons, hundreds abreast, in an unceasing march and countermarch ; the 

 breath which rises into the cold air from a hundred 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 the spot, while the 

 din, the roar arising o?er all, defies our description. 



We notice to our right and to our left, an immense solid mass of breeding seals at Qorbotch, 

 and those stretching and trending around nearly a mile from our feet, far around to the Eeef point 

 below and opposite the parade ground, with here and there a neutral passage is 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 requirements of the seal is perfect. 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 vegetation 

 upon this parade has been obliterated; a fe*v tufts of grass, capping the summits of those rocky 

 hillocks, indicated on the eastern and middle slope, are the only signs of botanical life which the 

 seals have suffered to remain. 



A small rock, " Seevitchie Kammin," 500 or 600 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 the navigators prudently avoid. 



This rookery of the Keef proper has 4,016 feet of sea margin, with an average depth of 150 

 feet, making ground for 301,000 breeding seals and their young. Gorbotch rookery has 3,660 feet 

 of sea margin, with an average depth of 100 feet, making ground for 183,000 breeding seals and 

 their young ; an aggregate for this great Eeef rookery of 484,000 breeding seals and their young. 

 Heavy as this enumeration is, yet the aggregate only makes the Eeef rookery third in impor 

 tance, compared with the others which we are yet to describe. 



LAGOON EOOKERY. We now pass from the Eeef up to the village, where one naturally would 

 not expect to find breeding seals within less than a pistol shot from the natives' houses; but it is 

 a fact, nevertheless, for on looking at the sketch map of the Lagoon rookery herewith presented, 

 it will be noticed that I have located a little gathering of breeding seals right under the village 

 hill to the westward of that place called "Nah Speel." This is in itself an insignificant rookery 

 and never has been a large one, though it is one of the oldest on the island. It is only interesting, 

 however, superficially so, on account of its position, and the fact that through every day of the 

 season half the population of the entire village go and come to the summit of the bluff, which over- 

 hangs it, where they peer down for hours at a time upon the methods and evolutions of the "kan- 

 tickie" below, the seals themselves looking up with intelligent appreciation of the fact that, though 

 they are in the hands of man, yet he is wise enough not to disturb them there as they rest. 



If at Nah Speel, or that point rounding into the village cove, there were any suitable ground 

 for a rookery to grow upon or spread over, the seals would doubtless have been there long ago. 

 There are, however, no such natural advantages offered them ; what there is they have availed 

 themselves of. 



Looking from the village across the cove and down upon the Lagoon, still another strange 

 contradiction appears at least it seems a natural contradiction to one's usual ideas. Here we see 

 SEC. v, VOL. ii 22 



