THE FUR SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALA13KA. 341 



marked on the ridge. It was at this bight of sandy landing that Pribylov's men first came ashore 

 and took possession of the island, while others in the same season proceeded to Northeast Point 

 and to the north shore, to establish settlements of their own order. When the indiscriminate 

 sealing of 1868 was in progress, one of the parties lived here, and a salt-house which was then 

 erected by them still stands ; it is in a very fair state of preservation, although it has never been 

 since occupied, except by the natives who come over here from the village in the summer to pick 

 the berries of the Empetrum and Rubm, which abound in the greatest profusion around the 

 rough and rocky flats that environ the little adjacent lake. The young people of Saint Paul are 

 very fond of this berry festival, so-called among themselves, and they stay here every August, 

 camping ont a week or ten days at a time, before returning to their homes in the village. 



Zapadnie rookery has, the two wings included, 5,880 feet of sea margin, with an average 

 depth of 150 feet, making ground for 441,000 breeding seals and their young, being the second 

 rookery on the island as to size and importance. 



The holluschickie that sport here on the parade plateau, and indeed over all of the western 

 extent of the English Bay hauling grounds, have never been visited by the natives for the purpose 

 of selecting killing drives since 1872, inasmuch as more seals than were wanted have always been 

 procured from Zoltoi, Lukannon, and Lower Tolstoi Points, which are all very close to the village. 

 I have been told, since making this survey, that during the past year the breeding seals of 

 Zapadnie have overflowed, so as to occupy all of the sand strip which is vacant between them 

 on the accompanying map. 



POLAVINA ROOKERY. Half way between the village and Northeast Point lies Polavina, 

 another one of the seven large breeding grounds on this island. The conspicuous cone-shaped 

 head of Polavina Sopka rises clearly cut and smooth from the plateau at its base, which falls 2 

 miles to the eastward and southeastward, sharp off into the sea, presenting a bluff margin over 

 a mile in length, at the base of which the sea thunders incessantly. It exhibits a very beautiful 

 geological section of the simple structure of Saint Paul. The ringing, iron-like basaltic foundations 

 of the island are here setting boldly up from the sea to a height of 40 or 50 feet black and pur- 

 plish-red, polished like ebony by the friction of the surf, and worn by its agency into grotesque 

 arches, tiny caverns, and deep fissures. Surmounting this lava bed is a cap of ferruginous cement 

 and tufa, from 3 to 10 feet in thickness, making a reddish floor, upon which the seals patter in their 

 restless, never-ceasing evolutions, sleeping or waking, on the land. It is as great a single parade 

 plateau of polished cement as that of the Reef, but we are unable from any point of observation to 

 appreciate it, inasmuch as we cannot stand high enough to overlook it, unless we ascend Polaviua 

 Sopka, and then the distances, with the perspective fore-shortening, destroy the effect. 



The rookery itself occupies only a small portion of the seal visited area at this spot. It is placed 

 at the southern termination and gentle sloping of the long reach of bluff wall, which is the only 

 cliff between Lukannon and Novastoshnah. It presents itself to the eye, however, in a very pecul- 

 iar manner, and with great scenic effect, when the observer views it from the extreme point of its 

 mural elevation ; scanned from thence, nearly a mile to the northeast, it rises as a front of 

 bicolored lava wall, high above the sea that is breaking at its base, and is covered with an infinite 

 detail of massed seals in reproduction ; at first sight, one wonders how they got there. No pas- 

 sages whatever can be seen, down or up. A further survey, however, discloses the common occur- 

 rence of rain water-runs between surf-beaten crevices, which make many stairways for the adhesive 

 feet of Callorhinus, amply safe and comfortable. 



For the reason cited in a similar example at Zapadnie, no "holluschickie" have been diiven 

 from this point since 1872, though it is one of the easiest worked. It was in the Russian times a 



