WONDERFUL SEAL ISLANDS. 225 



None of this peculiar landscai^ing, however, is seen on St. George, 

 not even in tlie faintest degree. Travel about St. Paul, with the 

 exception of that trail to Northeast Point, where the natives take 

 advantage of low water to run on the hard, wet sand, is exceedingly 

 difficult, and there are examples of only a few white men who have 

 ever taken the trouble and expended the j^hysical energy necessary 

 to accomplish a comparatively short walk from the village to 

 Nahsayvernia, or the north shore. "Walking upon the moss-hidden 

 and slippery rocks, or tumbling over slightly uncertain tussocks, is 

 a task and not a pleasure. On St. George, with the exception of a 

 half-mile path to the village cemetery and back, nobody pretends 

 to walk, excej^t the natives who go to and from the rookeries in 

 their regular seal-drives. Indeed, I am told that I am the only 

 white man who has ever traversed the entire coast-line of both 

 islands.^ 



* That profile of the south shore, between the village hill and Southwest 

 Point, taken from the steamer's anchorage off the village cove, shows its 

 characteristic and remarkable alternation of rookery slope and low sea-level 

 flats. This point of viewing is slightly more than half a mile true west of the 

 village hill, to a sight which brings Bogaslov summits and Tolstoi Head 

 nearly in line. At Zapadnie is the place where the Russian discoverers first 

 landed in 1787, July 10th. Witli the excej^tion of that bluffy west-end Ein- 

 ahnuh-to cliffs, the whole coast of St. Paul is accessible, and affords an easy 

 landing, except at the short reach of " Seethah " and the rookery points, as 

 indicated. The great sand beach of this island extends from Lukannon to 

 Polavina, thence to Webster's house, Novastoshnah ; from there over, and 

 sweeping back and along the north shore to Nahsayvernia headland, then be- 

 tween Zapadnie and Tolstoi, together with the beautiful though short sand of 

 Zoltoi. This extensive and slightly broken sandy coast is not described as 

 peculiar to any other island in Alaska, or of Siberian waters. 



There are no running streams at any season of the year on St. Paul ; but 

 an abundance of fresh water is plainly afforded by the numerous lakes, all 

 of which are '"svayjoi, " save the lagoon estiiary. The four big reefs which 

 I have located are each awash in every storm that blows from seaward over 

 them ; they are all rough, rocky ledges. That little one indicated in English 

 Bay caused the wrecking of a large British vessel in 1847, which was coming 

 in to anchor just without Zapadnie; a number of the crew were " massluck- 

 en," so my native informant averred. Most of the small amount of drift- 

 wood that is found on this island is procured at Northeast Point and Polavina ; 

 the north shore from Maroonitch to Tsammanah has also been favored with 

 sea-waif logs in exceptional seasons, to the exclusion of all other sections of 

 the coast. The natives say that the St. George people get much more drift- 

 wood every year, as a rule, than they do on St. Paul. From what I could see 

 15 



