FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 147 



tlioiigiit of their beiug " soured'' and beaten bulls, since the rookeries 

 were sini})ly ringing witli the noise of fighting " seecatchie ; ' and there 

 were then so many bulls on those grounds, that the absence of these 

 was not of the least account. But now, this feature comes up again to 

 me; and, is not this plaint of the natives to Veuiaminov in 1832, wholly 

 correct? and does this not account in a very large measure for the 

 vacancies on, anrt the astonishing somnolence of the scattered old bulls 

 wliich I see to day on the breeding grounds'? 



June 22^ ]S!)0. — The cows arejnst faintly showing themselves on this 

 Clarbotch side : and a. little better, but not much, on the Eeef line. They 

 are falling far behind the record of 187li at this hour. 



June 27^ 1S90. — As the Garbotch side of this rookery is in full view 

 from the village hill, I have come down here, since the above note. I 

 can see the sweep of (Jiirbotch, and that tells the story just as I have 

 recorded it under Tolstoi and Lukannon. As this, however, was the 

 first rookery I took the land angles of, so it will be the first one to be 

 mai)ped with the cows on the 10th proximo. 



June 28, 1890.— Mmle a tour of Garbotch and the reef this morning- 

 and find a feeble suggestion of the hauling- of the cows in 1872-1874. 

 Although there yet remain ten days ere the full limit to the coming 

 of the females is reached, yet enough is suggested by the exhibition 

 of the hour to make one very thoughtful — as much, nearly, as the 

 extraordinary scant hauling of the bulls did early in the month. The 

 wide empty areas between the podding females, in which nothing now 

 is seen and upon which bulls were thickly clustered in 1872, all roaring 

 and lighting incessantly, strike me most unpleasantly and foretells what 

 the result of my survey must be in a measure. 



The females are hauling very slowly, and that point below the " Crest" 

 where the hoUuschickie were driven from this morning is swept bare — 

 not a bull on it — showing that the result of the present method of driv- 

 ing from the outskirts or immediate line of the breeding seals, is to break 

 up and dissolve that organization at that place. 



The reef rocks which lay awash south-southwest from the Eeef Point, 

 seem to have a bond of submerged union with the south end of Seevit- 

 chie Kammen, for the sea breaks in a continuous roll across; and again 

 from its north end to the coast of the Reef rookery, south- southeast from 

 Reef Pinnacle, this reef continues. The water is bold enough all around 

 outside of this. 



July 1, 1890. — A circuit of the Reef and Garbotch this morning shows 

 that the bulls are certainly inadequate for the service which their scant 

 number and wild hauling entails upon them. Scattered harems of 65 

 and 70 cows are stretched along Garbotch, with but a single bull to 

 each: while at the same moment there are vacant intervals of a hun- 

 dred and hundreds of feet between them in which old bulls, all with- 

 out cows, are placidly sleeping. No fighting ; no young hulls landing, 

 and the ragged rookery belt does not mend. The cows are slowly 

 arriving, and will, until the lOtli instant. Then I shall map them down. 

 But as I view them to-day it is impossible to avoid the plain evidence 

 of imperfect, dilatory, and feeble service, as contrasted with the vim 

 and vigor here of 1872. Here the grass is rapidly covering the grand 

 Reef parade of 1872-1874, and that confervoid growth which always 

 appears immediately the next season after the one the seals cease to 

 haul on an old hauling ground : I can not walk over this place without 

 positive feelings of regret and astonishment. The alteration is simply 

 immense, and all for the worse. 



July 10, 1890. — In company with Mr. Goff and Dr. Lutz I made my 



