374 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



Sea-lion bones are, however, normally strong and heavy ; the bone of the fur seal is evidently 

 stout enough, but it is singularly light, while the walrus, that dull, sluggish brute, has a massive 

 osteological frame. I made these relative examinations more especially to ascertain something 

 which might pass for a correct estimate of what the bony waste on the killing-grounds of the 

 Pribylov islands amounted to annually, with a view of its possible utilization. The spongy bones 

 of the whole one hundred thousand annually laid out would not render, according to my best 

 judgment, 50 tons of dry bone-meal an insignificant result and unworthy of further notice on 

 these islands. 



DECAY OP SEAL CARCASSES. Another singular and striking characteristic of the Island of 

 Saint Paul, is the fact that this immense slaughtering-field, upon which seventy-five to ninety thou- 

 sand fresh carcasses lay every season, sloughing away into the sand beneath, does not cause any 

 sickness among the people who live right over them, so to speak. The cool, raw temperature, and 

 strong winds, peculiar to the place, seem to prevent any unhealthy effect from the fermentation of 

 decay. The blubber envelopes left upon the carcasses really act as air-tight retorts, holding the 

 gases arising from the decomposition of the viscera within until they are absorbed and soak away 

 into the sand below; the skinned carcasses seem to fairly melt down into this foundation, so that 

 they disappear entirely the third season after their creation. The Elymus and other grasses once 

 more take heart and grow with magical vigor over the unsightly spot, to which the sealing-gang 

 again return, repeating their bateau, which we have marked before, upon this place, three years 

 ago. In that way this strip of ground, seen on my map between the village, the east landing, and 

 the lagoon, contains the bones and the oil-drippings and other fragments thereof, of more than three 

 million seals slain since 1786 thereon, while the slaughter-fields at Novastoshnah record the end 

 of a million more. 



I remember well the unmitigated sensations of disgust that possessed me when I first landed, 

 April 28, 1872, on the Pribylov islands, and passed up from the beach, at Black Bluffs, to the 

 village, over the killing-grounds; though there was a heavy coat of snow on the fields,-yet each 

 and every one of seventy -five thousand decaying carcasses was there, and bare, having burned, 

 as it were, their way out to the open a.ir, polluting the same to a sad degree. I was laughed at 

 by the residents who noticed my facial contortions, and assured that this state of smell was 

 nothing to what I should soon experience when the frost and snow had fairly melted. They were 

 correct; the odor along by the end of May was terrific punishment to my olfactories, and con- 

 tinued so for several weeks until my sense of smell became blunted and callous to this stench by 

 sheer familiarity. Like the other old residents I then became quite unconscious of the prevalence 

 of this rich " funk," and ceased to notice it. 



Those who land here, as I did, for the first time nervously and invariably declare that such 

 an atmosphere must breed a plague or a fever of some kind in the village, and hardly credit the 

 assurance of those who have resided in it for whole periods of their lives that such a thing was 

 never known to Saint Paul, and that the island is remarkably healthy. It is entirely true, however, 

 and, after a few weeks' contact, or a couple of months' experience at the longest, the most sensi- 

 tive nose becomes used to that aroma, wafted as it is hourly, day in and out, from decaying seal 

 flesh, viscera, and blubber ; and, also, it ceases to be an object of notice. The cool, sunless climate 

 during the warmer months has undoubtedly much to do with checking too rapid decomposition, 

 and consequent trouble therefrom, which would otherwise arise from the killing-grounds. 



The freshly skinned carcasses of this season do not seem to rot substantially until the following 

 year; then they rapidly slough away into the sand upon which they rest; the envelope of blubber 

 left upon each body seems to act as an air-tight receiver, holding most of tlic putrid gases within 



