FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA, 43 



trapping foxes, looking to the west over the lake, is a large expanse of 

 low, flat swale and tundra, which is terminated by the rocky ridge of 

 Kaminista. Every foot of it has been placed there subsequent to the 

 original elevation of the island by the action of the sea, beyond all ques- 

 tion. It is covered with a thick growth of the rankest sphagnum, wliich 

 quakes and trembles like a bog under one's feet, but over which the 

 most beautiful mosses ever and anon crop out, including the character- 

 istic floral dis]day before referred to in speaking of the island. Most 

 of the way from the village uj) to Northeast Point, as will be seen by a 

 cursory glance at the map, with the excei)tion of this bluff of Polavina 

 and the terraced table setting back from its face to Polavina Soi)ka, 

 the whole land is slightly elevated above the level of the sea, and its 

 coast line is lying just above and beyond the reach of the surf where 

 great ledges of sand have been piled by the wind, capped with sheafs 

 and tufts of rank-growing ElymuH. 



There is a small rookery which 1 call Little Polavina, indicated here, 

 that does not promise nuich for the future. The sand cuts it off on the 

 north, and sand has blown around so at its rear as to make all other 

 ground not now occupied by the breeding seals there, quite ineligible. 

 Polavina rookery has 4,000 feet sea margin, including Little Polavina, 

 with 150 feet average depth, making ground for 300,000 breeding seals 

 and their young. 



PQLAVINA ROOKERY (1890). 



[Its condition mid appearance July, 1890.'] 



My survey, July 13, 1890, of this breeding ground shows it to be one 

 of the two rookeries only, which have siift'ered on St. Paul Island no 

 greater loss than from 50 to 55 per cent of their general form and num- 

 ber as recorded in 1871}. Yet I can not avoid the conclusion, however, 

 that this rookery has been hard driven from during the last eight years, 

 since the chief hauling grounds lay directly up in the rear of the breed- 

 ing lines. Therefore, when the shrinking of the supply of holluschickie 

 began, the driving of the killable seals here involved a regular scraping 

 of the large semicircular edge of Polavina rookery whenever a drive was 

 made. In illustration of this, a drive made here on the 18th of July, 

 brought in, out of a total of 1 ,541 animals, 172 old breeding bulls ! which 

 had been scrai)ed up on the rookery margin by the native drivers, who 

 were obliged to t((l-e these old felloics along, or lose the handful of Mil a- 

 hle young male seals that they were after. I witnessed this driving, and 

 saw not only these old bulls, but cows swept up into the stampeded herd ; 

 their pups left bruised and helpless behind to starve and to otherwise 

 perish. 



This is a locality where, until 1872, like the Zapadnie and Southwest 

 Point areas, the fur seals on St. Paul Island had been undisturbed by 

 the sealers since 1857; therefore, the holluschickie and the breeding- 

 seals had polished the whole surface of that high plateau laying gently 

 back from the bluffs, a mile of sea margin, way back entirely free from 

 vegetation, 1,000 to 2,000 feet; every vestige of vegetable growth utterly 

 eliminated by their flippers. The reddish to blood-red breccia and 

 cinders that compose the floor to this parade ground of Polavina was 

 literally j)owdered by the attrition of seal flippers into an impalpable 

 red dust, which, during every windy day, would rise in columns and 

 clouds to betray the locality to your eye from all points of the island, 

 and often has suggested to sailors at sea the idea of a steamer under 

 way, within lee of the land. During misty, foggy, and wet days this 



