448 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



The soutli ond of Bering Ishiiid is wild, lorbiddiii.!;-, and picturesque to the last 

 degree. Enormous cliffs rise a tbousaud or more feet high at Stotchnoi, Tolstoi, and 

 other projecting points. The coast is mncii more wall like than tiie jagged slopes of 

 Medni and its peaks quite as high. 



Xikohki. — The houses of Nikolski village are of various — usually two — colors 

 each, sky blue and pea green, yellow and i>ink, gray and brick red, dove color and 

 green, pink and pale blue. The church is creamy pink, trimmed with sky blue; tiie 

 roof is slate greeu, the dome and cross yellow, with sky blue ball at base of cross. 

 Many handsome white skinned Russian children are to be seen in the village. 



GENERAL NOTES.' 



Severnoye or Xorth rookery has yielded .'5,350 skins to date; Poludinuoye or 

 South rookery, 380 skins up to August 13, Drives are still being made on Bering- 

 Island ; one occurred on August 22. The bulls are all gone. 



There are a very few adult l)ulls on Bering Island, not enough to keej) the 

 holostiaki ofl' the rookeries even in breeding season. As a result for two years females, 

 males, pups, and all are driven up. The level condition of the rookeries and driveways 

 makes it possible to capture practically every available young male, and the escape 

 of these into wigged age takes place very rarely. I'robably not more than one or two 

 bachelors each season so escape. It seems probable that the young males only herd 

 separately because they are forced to do so by the bulls, and they cease to do so just 

 as .soon as the bulls leave or because too few to keep them off. 



South rookery, on Bering Island, had only 3 bulls this sea.son, and they went 

 away early. Mr. (Irebnitzi thinks this small number is enough to impregnate all the 

 cows, and therefore fully enough for rookery purposes. Mv. Barrett liauiilton says 

 that every adult cow on both the Bering Island rookeries has a pup. 



No su(^h close killing is even suggested as having ever occurred on St. I'aul. 

 It is not evident from conditions of Bering Island that it does any harm. The sole 

 inii)ortant function of the bull is rei)rodu('tion, and if there are enough for this nothing 

 fuither is needed. But such close killing should not be attempted without (careful 

 inspection and investigation of the question of how many bulls are necessary. 



The bulls on St. Paul Island could never have been so closely killed as on 

 Bering Island, where every one above 2 years old that hauls out and nuxny 2-year olds 

 are taken. No available seal escapes, and no especial thought is given to the bulls 

 except that the few that have in past years escajjed have been and are suflicient. On 

 St. Paul Island, Sivtnch liock, Utter Island, and Lagoon rookeries, which are not 

 driven at all, would insure the escape of sufficient bulls if no other pi-ovision were 

 made. 



MEDNI ISLAND. 



We reached Preobrajen.ski, on Medni Island, at o'clock on the evening of August 

 24. It is a little windswept village on a grassy opeuiug at the foot of cliffs, rising 

 nearly 2,000 feet vertically like the crags of Norwegian fjords. Down the runways 

 sweep the great wind storms in litful gusts, the "willie waughs" of the sailors. 



' Obtaiueil iu au interview with Emil Kluge, agent of the Russian Fur Company at Nikolski, on 

 Bering Island. 



