THE FUR SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



343 



The picturesque feature, also, of the rookery here, is the appearance of the tawny, yellowish 

 bodies of .several thousand sea-lions,* which lay in and among the fur-seals at the several points 

 designated on the sketch-map, though never far from the water. Sea-Lion Neck, a little tongue of 

 low basaltic jutting, is the principal corner where the natives take these animals from when they 

 capture them in the- fall for their hides and sinews. 



Cross, or Saint John's, Hill, which rises near the lake, to a height of 00 or 70 feet, and quite 

 a landmark in itself, is a perfect cone of sand entirely covered with a luxuriant growth of Elymus. 

 It is growing constantly higher by the fresh sand deposit brought by winds, and its retention by the 

 annually rising grasses. 



At this point, it will be noticed, there is a salt-house, and here is the killing ground for North- 

 east Point, where nineteen or twenty thousand "holluschickie" are disposed of for their skins every 

 season, their carcasses being spread out on the sand dunes between the foot of Cross Hill and 

 Webster's house ; a squad of sealers live, there during the three or four weeks that they are engaged 

 in the work. The " holluschickie" are driven from the large hauling grounds on the sand flats 

 immediately adjacent to the killing grounds, being obtained without the slightest difficulty. 



There 'also was the site of a village, once the largest one on this island ere its transfer to the 

 sole control and charge of the old Russian-American Company, ten years after its discovery in 

 1780. The ancient cemetery and the turf lines of the decayed barraboras are still plainly visible. 



NORTH EAST POINT 



Scale: 



l-n.-ft. 





'Tin- Ki-ii-linns breed 011 no one of the rookeries at this island, the insignificant number that I noticed on Seevit- 

 Hiie Kaiiuiiin exeepted. At Southwest Point, however, I found a small sea-lion rookery, but there are no breeding.fur- 

 m-als there. A handful of Etimetopias used to breed on Otter Island, but do not now since it has been necessary to 

 station Government agents there, for the apprehension of fur-seal pirates, during the sealing season. 



