FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 49 



The scantiness of the St. George rookeries is due to the configura- 

 tion of that ishmd itself. There are five separate, well-defined rook- 

 eries ou St. George, as follows : 



ZAPADNIE ROOKERY (1873-74). 

 [Its condition and appearance July, 18?4.'\ 



Directly across the island from its north shore to Zapadnie Bay, a 

 little over 5 miles from the village, is a jjoint where the southern bluff 

 walls of the island turn north and drop quickly down from their lofty 

 elevation in a succession of heavy terraces to an expanse of rocky flat, 

 bordered by a sea sand beach. Just between the sand beach and these 

 terraces, however, is a stretch of about 2,000 feet of low, rocky shingle, 

 which borders the flat country back of it, and upon which the surf 

 breaks free and boldly. Midway between the two i)oints is the rook- 

 ery, and a small detachment of it rests on the direct slope bf the bluff 

 'tself, to the southward, while in and around the rookery, falling back 

 lO some distance, the holluschickie aie found. 



A great many confusing statements have been made to me about this 

 rookery — more than in regard to any other on the islands. It has been 

 said with much positiveness that in the times of the Kussian rule this 

 was an immense rookery for St. George; or, in other words, it covered 

 the entire ground between th«t low plateau to the north and the high 

 plateau to the south, as indicated on the map; and it is also cited in 

 proof of this that the main village of the island for many years — thirty 

 or forty — was placed ou or near the limited drifting sand dune tracts just 

 above the plateau, to the westward. Be the case as it may, it is certain 

 that for a great, great many years back no such rookery has ever existed 

 here. When seals have rested on a chosen piece of ground to breed they 

 wear off the sharp edges of fractured basaltic bowlders, and polish the 

 breccia and cement between them so thoroughly and so finely that years 

 and years of chiseling by frost and covering by lichens and creeping of 

 mosses will be required to efface that record. Hence, I was able, act- 

 ing on the suggestion of the natives of St. Paul, to trace out those 

 deserted fur-seal rookeries on the shores of that island, at Maroonitch, 

 which had, according to their account, been abandoned for over sixty 

 years by the seals; still, at their prompting, when I searched the shore 

 I found the old boundaries tolerably well defined. I could find nothing 

 like them at Zapadnie. 



Zapadnie rookery in July, 1873, had GOO feet of sea margin, with 60 

 feet of average depth, making ground for 18,000 breeding seals and 

 their young. In 1874 I resurveyed the field, and it seemed very clear 

 to me that there had been a slight increase, perhaps to the number of 

 5,000, according to the expansion of the superficial area over that of 

 1873. 



From Zapadnie we pass to the north shore, where all the other rook- 

 eries are located, with the village at a central point between them on 

 the immediate border of the sea; and in connection with this ijoint it 

 is interesting to record the fact that every year, until recently, it has 

 been the regular habit of the natives to drive the holluschickie over 

 the 2i or 3 miles of rough basaltic uplands which separate the hauling 

 ground of Zapadnie from the village; driving them to the killing 

 grounds there in order to save the delay and trouble generally experi- 

 enced in loading these skins in the open bay. The i^revailiug westerly 

 and northwesterly winds during July and August make it for weeks 

 H. Doc. 175 4 



