38 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



A comical feature of tliis rookery is tbe ai>pearaiice of blue foxes in 

 those chinks under the parade ground and interstices of the clifts. 

 Their melancholy l)arking- and short yelps of astonishment as we walk 

 about, contrast quite sensibly with the utter indifference of the seals 

 to our presence. 



From Tolstoi, at this point, sweeping around 3 miles to Zapadnie, is 

 the broad sand reach of English Bay, upon Avhich, and back over its 

 gently rising Hats, are the great hauling grounds of the holluschickie, 

 which I have indicated on the generalmap, and to which 1 made refer- 

 ence in a previous section ot this chapter. Looking at the myriads 

 of bachelor seals spread out in their restless hundreds and hundreds of 

 thousands upon this ground, one feels the utter impotency of verbal 

 description and rekictantly shnts his note and sketch books to gaze 

 upcni it with renewed fascination and perfect helplessness. 



Tolstoi rookery has attained, I think, its utmost lindt of expansion. 

 The seals have already pushed themselves as far out upon the sand at 

 the north as they can or are willing to go, while the abrupt cliffs, hanging 

 over more than one-half of the sea margin, shut out all access to the rear 

 for the breeding seals. The natives said that this rookery had increased 

 very much during the last four or five years prior to the date of my 

 making the accompanying survey. If it continues to increase, the fact 

 can be instantly noted by checking off the ground and comparing it with 

 the sketch mai) herewith presented. Tolstoi rookery has 3,000feet of sea 

 margin, with an average depth of 150 feet, making ground for 225,000 

 breeding seals and their young. 



TOLSTOI ROOKERY, 1890. 

 [7/s condition and appearance July, ISOO.] 



My picture of this rookery as above drawn in 1872, forms a remarkable 

 contrast when held up in view of the picture which Tolstoi made in the 

 height of the sealing season last summer. The scant, scattered massiug 

 of the breeding animals as exhibited this year over those same areas of 

 splendid congregation in 1872, where 500 feet deep from the sea. margin 

 the breeding seals and their young laid in comi)act solid organization 

 throughout the rutting season — this contrast between the condition of 

 1872 and 1890 was most vividly made here, since it is the only one of 

 the St Paul rookeries Avhich can be seen in all of its extent from a single 

 I)oint of view. It also was an exceedingly attractive rookery to visit in 

 1872, because from its height the vast swec}) of those English Bay haul- 

 ing grounds laid under your eyes, and the tens of thousands of hol- 

 luschickie which then hauled out there, in sport or in sleep, were 

 always to be seen whenever you glanced that way. 



Not even a faint suggestion of 1872 appeared on this hauling ground 

 of English Bay last summer: and the shriveled form of Tolstoi rookery 

 in 1890 is best expressed by the figures which follow explanatory of 

 the accompanying map: 



Detailed anah/sis of the sin-veii of Tolstoi rookery July 10, 1S90. 



fSea margin beginning at A and ending at D.J 



Square feet. 



800 feet sea maroin between A and B, with 80 feet averaoce depth, massed . . (M, 000 



400 feet sea margin between W and C, with 60 feet average depth, massed .. 24, 000 



1,600 feet sea margin between C and ]), with 10 feet average de])th, massed. 16, 000 



.lag E has 300 feet of depth, with 40 feet average width, massed 12, 000 



Jag F has 100 feet of depth, with 40 feet average width, massed 4, 000 



vFag G hds 120 feet of depth, with 40 feet of average width, massed 4, 800 



Total square feet 124,800 



