346 HISTORY A> T 1> METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



north, and drop quickly down from their lofty elevation in a succession of heavy terraces, to an 

 expanse of rocky flat, bordered by a sea sand beach ; just between the sand beach, however, and 

 these terraces, is a stretch of about 2,000 feet of low, rocky shingle, which borders the flat country 

 back of it, and upon which the surf breaks free and boldly. Midway between the two points is the 

 rookery; and a small detachment of it rests on the direct sloping of the bluff itself, to the south- 

 ward ; while in and around the rookery, falling back to some distance, the " Iiolluschickie" are found. 



A great many confusing statements have been made to me about this rookery more than in 

 regard to any other on the islands. It has been said, with much positiveness, that, in the times of 

 the Russian rule, this was an immense rookery for Saint George; or, in other words, it covered the 

 entire ground between that low plateau to the north and the high plateau to the south, as indicated 

 on the map; and it is also cited in proof of this that the main village of the island, for many years, 

 thirty or forty, was placed on or near the limited drifting sand dune tracts just above the plateau, 

 to the westward. Be the case as it may, it is certain that for a great, great many years back, no 

 such rookery has ever existed here. When seals have rested on a chosen piece of ground to breed, 

 they wear off the sharp edges of fractured basaltic bowl tiers, and polish the breccia and cement 

 between them so thoroughly and so finely that years and years of chiseling by frost, and covering 

 by lichens, and creeping of mosses, will be required to efface that record. Hence I was able, act- 

 ing on the suggestion of the natives at Saint Paul, to trace out those deserted fur-seal rookeries on 

 the shores of that island. At Maroonitch, which had, according to their account, been abandoned 

 for over sixty years by the seals, still, at their prompting, when I searched the shore, I found the 

 old boundaries tolerably well defined; I could find nothing like them at Zapadnie. 



Zapadnie rookery in July, 1873, had 600 feet of sea margin, with 60 feet of average depth, 

 making ground for 18,000 breeding seals and their young. In 1874 I resurveyed the field, and it 

 seemed very clear to me that there had been a slight increase, perhaps to the number of 5,000 

 according to the expansion of the superficial area over that of 1873. 



From Zapadnie we pass to the north shore, where all the other rookeries are located, with the 

 village at a central point between them on the immediate border of the sea. And, in connection 

 with this point, it is interesting to record the fact that every year, until recently, it has been the 

 regular habit of the natives to drive the " holluschickie " over the 2 or 3 miles of rough basaltic 

 uplands which separate the hauling ground of Zapaduie from the village ; driving them to the kill- 

 ing grounds there, in order to save the delay and trouble generally experienced in loading these 

 skins in the open bay. The prevailing westerly and northwesterly winds during July and August 

 make it, for weeks at a time, a marine impossibility to effect a lauding at Zapadnie, suitable for the 

 safe transit of cargo to the steamer. 



This three miles of the roughest of all rough walks that can be imagined, is made by the fur- 

 seals in about seven or eight hours, when driven by the Aleuts ; and, the weather is cool and foggy. 

 I have known one Treasury agent, who, after making the trip from the village to Zapadnie, seated 

 himself down in the barrabkie, there, and declared that no money would induce him to walk back 

 tlie same way that same day, so severe is the exercise to one not accustomed to it ; but it exhibits 

 the power of land-locomotion possessed by the "holluschickie."* 



* The peculiarly rough character to this trail is given by the large, loose, sharp-edged basaltic bowlders, which 

 are strewn thickly over all those lower plateau that bridge the island between the high bluffs at Starry Ateel and the 

 slopes of the Ahluckeyak Hill. The summits of the two broader, higher plateaus, east and west, respectively, are 

 comparatively smooth and easy to travel over; and so is the sea-level flat at Zapiidnie itself. On the map of Saint 

 George, a number of very small ponds will be noticed; they are the fresh-water reservoirs of the island. The two 

 largest of these are near the summit of this rough divide : the MM! trail from Zapadnic to the village runs.junt west 

 of them, and comes out on the north shore, a little to the eastward of the hauling grounds of Starry Ateel, where it 

 forks and unites with that path. The direct line between the village and /apadnic, though nearly a mile shorter on 

 the chart, is equal to 5 miles more of distance by reason of its superlative rocky inequalities. 



