FUE-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 145 



I gathered and gave to Palmer (for the Smithsoniau Institution) a 

 lovely sample of that characteristic green confervoid grov/th that 

 appears so strange to me now, as it grows npon these hauling grounds 

 andthe rookeries. It seems to grow on the pulverized, shedded hair and 

 fur comminuted. This makes a beautiful green carpet, and it appears^ 

 to be in its best form at this time of the year; in other words, I take it 

 to be in blossom,-' By the 10th to the 12th of June it shrinks and crocks 

 up, and is not as bright as it is now. 



1 do not observe one bull here to day, where ^ saw at least twenty at 

 this time eighteen years ago. Then, these slopes of Garbotch were 

 covered with angry, lusty bulls, in solid mass from the shore line to 

 the ridge suunuit: so far over, even, that it required a club vigorously 

 used before we could get up on Old Jolm Eock, so as to look over and 

 below. Then, they were hghtiug in every direction under our eyes; 

 now, not a fight in progress anywhere; not bulls enough to quarrel. 

 They are scattered widely over this same ground where in 1872 an 

 interval of 10 feet between them did not exist; to-day there are inter- 

 vals of hundreds of feet. 



June 7, 1890. — The kelp on the submerged reef extends at least 1,000 

 feet to south-soutliwest from the rocks awash as indicated on my chart 

 of the jDeninsula. This kelp marks a shoal everywhere rough and 

 rocky within its borders, of a fathom to 6 fathoms depth, making it a 

 very dangerous point*for vessels, especially when picking up the land 

 in a fog. 



In this kelp, and over these rocks awash, the first bands of hoUus- 

 chickie that reach these islands every spring, sport and haul. A few of 

 them may be seen here, at or about the arrival of the first bulls, and it 

 is from this point that the first drives of the year are regularly made 

 by the natives, for food, as early as the 10th to the 14th of May, some 

 seasons: and by the 20th to the 21th of May in late or cold si)rings. 



June 8y 1800. — This pencil sketch of the sweep of Garbotch I have 

 made this afternoon with extreme care, since it shows to the best advan- 

 tage, the real character of a first class breeding ground for the uses of 

 the fur seal. 



The entire underpinning to the Reef and Garbotch is lava, basalt, in 

 which at some points, notably on the Reef Point, much iron is embodied. 

 This basalt is either dark purplish or reddish black, or else of light-gray 

 tint; sometimes it is solid and compact: then again, thickly peppered 

 with air holes and bubbles. On the point of Garbotch, in this picture, 

 the breeding ground is a smooth slope down to the sea, from the sum- 

 mit, of polished breccia or soft, grayish black and dull-red scoriiP: worn 

 to an entirely smooth surface by the attrition of the rtipj)ers of haul- 

 ing seals. But, under Old John Rock, large bowlders are heaped pro- 

 miscuously from the crest of the ridge to the surf: and this rough surface 

 continues to the limit of the rookery under my seat by the edge of these 

 bluffs by the " Cap." When I first came down to tliis rookery in May 

 (21), 1872, I had great difficulty in getting in from behind to Old John 

 Rock. Clubs had to be used to drive tlie bulls away; now there is 

 nothing in the road there, or anywhere else on the crest of the entire 

 rookery. It does not seem to me, as I write, that there are five bulls 

 here to-day where there were 100 eighteen years ago. Lichens and 

 mosses now growing on rocks where restless breeders annually polished 

 them brightly then. 



June 11, 1890. — Natives made their first drive of the year for the com- 

 pany this morning early, from the "Crest,"of about 1,000 holluschickie. 

 (See Note Book II, hauling grounds.) That picture opposite shows the 

 H. Doc. 175- — 10 



