340 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



A comical feature of this rookery is tbat appearance of blue foxes in the chinks under this 

 parade ground and interstices of the clift's ; their melancholy barking and short yelps of astonish- 

 ment, as we walk about, contrast quite sensibly with thp utter indifference of the seals to our 

 presence. 



From Tolstoi at this point, sweeping around 3 miles to Zapadnie, is the broad sand reacli 

 of English Bay, upon which and back over its gently rising flats are the great hauling grounds of 

 the holluschickie, which I have indicated on the general map, and to which I made reference in 

 a previous section of this chapter. Looking at the myriads of " bachelor seals" spread out in 

 their restless hundreds and hundreds of thousands upon this ground, one feels the utter impotency 

 of verbal description, and reluctantly shuts his note and sketch books to gaze upon it with 

 renewed fascination and perfect helplessness. 



Tolstoi rookery has attained, I think, its utmost limit of expansion. The seals have already 

 pushed themselves as far out upon the sand at the north as they can or are willing to go, while 

 the abrupt cliffs, hanging over more than one-half of the sea margin, shut out all access to the 

 rear for the breeding seals. The natives said that this rookery had increased very much during 

 the last four or five years prior to the date of my making the accompanying survey. If it 

 continues to increase, the fact can be instantly noted, by checking off the ground and comparing 

 it with the sketch map herewith presented. Tolstoi rookery has 3,000 feet of sea margin, with an 

 average depth of 150 feet, making ground for 225,000 breeding seals and their young. 



ZAPADNIE ROOKERY. From Tolstoi, before going north, we turn our attention directly to 

 Zapadnie on the west, a little over 2 miles as the crow flies, across English Bay, which lies 

 between them. Here again we find another magnificent rookery, with features peculiar to itself, 

 consisting of great wings separating one from the other, by a short stretch of 500 or 600 feet of 

 the shunned sand reach, which makes a landing and a beach just between them. The northern 

 Zapaduie lies mostly on the gently sloping, but exceedingly rocky, flats of a rough volcanic ridge 

 which drops there to the sea. It, too, has an approximation to the Tolstoi depth, but not to such 

 a solid extent. It is the one rookery which I have reason to believe has sensibly increased since 

 my first survey in 1872. It has overflowed from the boundary which I laid down at that time, 

 and has filled up for nearly half a mile, a long ribbon-like strip of breeding ground to the north- 

 east from the hill slope, ending at a point where a few detached rocks jut out, and the sand takes 

 exclusive possession of the rest of the coast. These rocks aforesaid are called by the natives 

 " Xearhpahskie kaiumiu," because they are a favorite resort for the hair-seals. Although this 

 extension of a quite decided margin of breeding ground, over half a mile in length, between 1872 

 and 1876, does not, in the aggregate, point to a very large increased number, still it is gratifying 

 evidence that the rookeries, instead of tending to diminish in the slightest, are more than holding 

 their own. 



Zapadnie, in itself, is something like the reef plateau on its eastern face, for it slopes up 

 gradually and gently to the parade plateau on top a parade ground not so smooth, however, 

 being very rough and rocky, but which the seals enjoy. Just around the point, a low reach of 

 rocks and beach connects it with the ridge walls of Southwest Point. A very small breeding 

 rookery, so small that it is not worthy of a survey, is located here. I think, probably, on account 

 of the nature of the ground, that it will never hold its own, and is more than likely abandoned by 

 this time. 



One of the prehistoric villages, the village of Pribylov's time, was established here between 

 this point and the cemetery ridge on which the northern wing of Zapadnie rests. The old 

 burying ground, with its characteristic Russian crosses and faded pictures of the saints, is plainly 



