AMPHIBIAN MILLIONS. 321 



a series of faintly terraced tables, which drop down to a flat that 

 again abruptly descends to the sea at Ketavie Point. Between us 

 and Ketavie rookery is the parade-ground of Lukannon, — a sight 

 almost as grand as is that on the Eeef which we have feebly at- 

 tempted to portray. The sand-dunes to the west and to the north 

 are covered with the most luxuriant grass, abruptly emarginated by 

 shai-p abrasions of the hauling-seals : this is shown very clearly 

 on my general map. Ketavie Point is a solid basaltic shelf. Lu- 

 kannon Hill, the summit of it, is composed of volcanic tufa and 

 cement, with irregular cubes and fragments of pure basalt scattered 

 all over its flipper- worn slopes. This is that place, down along the 

 flat shoals of Lukannon Bay, where the sand-dunes are most char- 

 acteristic, as they rise in their wind-whirled forms just above sux-f- 

 wash. Here also is where the natives come from the village during 

 the early mornings of the season for driving, to get any number of 

 " hoUuschickie " required. 



It is a beautiful sight, glancing from the summit of this great 

 rookery hill, tip to the north over that low reach of the coast to 

 Tonkie Mees, where the waves seem to I'oll in with crests which rise 

 in unbroken ridges for a mile in length each, ere they break so 

 grandly and uniformly on the beach. In these rollers the " hoUu- 

 schickie " are playing like sea-birds, seeming to sport the most joy- 

 ously at the very moment when a heavy billow breaks and falls 

 upon them. 



The precipitous shore-line of St. George is enough in itself to ex- 

 plain the small number-of seals found there, when contrasted with 

 the swarming myriads of her more favorably adapted sister island. 

 Nevertheless that Muscovitic sailor, Pribylov, not knowing then of 

 the existence of St. Paul, was as well satisfied as if he had pos- 

 sessed the boundless universe when he first found it. As in the 

 case of St. Paul Island, I have been unable to learn much here in 

 regard to the early status of the rookeries, none of the natives hav- 

 ing any real information. The drift of their sentiment goes to show 

 that there never was a great assemblage of fur-seals on St. George 



EiNAHNUHTO, an Aleutian word, signifying the ^' three mammm.'''' 

 Tolstoi, a Russian name, signifying •' (hick^\- it is given to at least a hun- 

 dred different capes and headlands throughout Alaska, being applied as indis- 

 criminately as we do the term *' Bear Creek " to little streams in our Western 

 States and Territories. 

 21 



