THK Kli; SKAL INDUSTRY OK ALASKA. 347 



STARRY ARTEEL*. This rookery is the next in order, and it is the most remarkable one on 

 Saint George, lying as it does in one hold sweep from the sea, up a steeply inclined slope to a point 

 where the blurt's that border it seaward are over 400 feet high ; the seals being just as closely 

 crowded at the summit of this lofty breeding plat as they arc at the water's edge; the wholeoblong 

 oval on the side hill, as designated by the accompanying survey, is eovered by their thickly clus- 

 tered forms. It is a strange sight, also, to sail under these bluffs with the boat, in fair weather, for 



Mil* 



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STARRY ATEEL 



Scale: 



aogft. 



a landing ; and, as you walk the beach, over which the cliff wall frowns a sheer 500 feet, there, 

 directly over your head, the craning necks and twisting forms of the restless seals, ever and anon, 

 as you glance upward, appear as if ready to launch out and fall below, so closely and boldly do 

 they press the very edge of the precipice.! There is a low, rocky beach to the eastward of this 



" Starry Arteel " or "Old Settlement "; a few hundred .yards to the eastward of the rookery is the earthen ruin 

 of one of tin- pioneer settlements in Pribylov's time, and which tlie natives say, marks the, first spot selected by the 

 Russians for their village after the discovery of Saint George, in 17<-'(;. "Atecl" on the map should be "Arteel." 



tl have been repeatedly astonished at a supernatural power possessed by the fur-seal of resistance to death 

 shocks which -would rationally oeenr to an\ oilier animal. To explain clearly, the reader will observe, by reference 

 to the maps, that there are a great many elitt'yplaees between the rookeries on the shore lines of the islands. Some 

 of these binds are more than 100 feet in sheer elevation above the surf and rocks awash below. Frequently " ho'ius- 

 ehiekie " iii ones, or twos, or threes will stray far away back from the great masses of their kind, and fall asleep in 

 the thick grass and herbage which covers these mural reaches. Sometimes they will lie down and rest very close to 

 the edge, and then as yon come tramping along yon discover and startle them and yourself alike. They, blinded by 

 their first transports of alarm, plunge promptly over the brink, snorting, coughing, and spitting as they go. Curiously 

 peering after them and looking down upon the rocks. ">0 to 100 feet below, instead of seeing their stunned and motion- 

 less bodies, you will invariably catch sight of them rapidly scrambling into the water; and, when in it, swimming off 

 like arrows from the bow. Three "hollnschiekie" were thus inadvertently surprised by me on the edge of the west 

 face to Otter Island. They plunged over from an elevation, there, not less than 200 feet in sheer elevation, and I dis- 

 tinctly saw them fall in scrambling, whirling evolutions, down, thumping upon the rocky shingle beneath, from 

 which they bounded, as they struck, like so many rubber balls. Two of them never moved after the rebound ceased, 

 but the third one reached the water and swam away like' a bird on the wing. 



While they seem to escape without bodily injury incident to such hard falls as ensue from dropping 50 or 60 feet 

 upon pebbly beach and rough bowlders below, and even greater elevations, yet I am inclined to think that some 

 internal injuries are necessarily sustained in most every case, which soon develop and cause deatu; the excitement 

 and the vitality of the seal, at the moment of the terrific shock, is able to sustain and conceal the real injury for the 

 time being. 



