FUR-SEAL HEED OF ALASKA. 31 



Unlike Dr. Jordan, I am not a barber's apprentice in topographical work. I served 

 thi-ee summers under the best of topographers in the field, 1869-1871, inclusive, doing 

 exactly such work as this on the seal islands; i. e., making original surveys of un- 

 mapped districtjS in the Rocky Mountain region. Until I made my surveys of the seal 

 islands, in 1872-1874, there was nothing on the maps that faintly resembled the area, 

 the contour, or the topography of the Pribilof group. The Russian charts of them 

 were perfect caricatures and the American copies no better. 



So good were my charts of St. Pauls Island tliat a surveying party of the United 

 States Coast Siu'vey, when it landed there in July, 1874, asked for and received from 

 me copies of it, which they did not alter in the slightest noteworthy degree after spend- 

 ing a week on the ground, and it was shortly after published by the Coast Siu'vey 

 Office, with scant credit to me, its author. However, I care nothing for that, and I 

 only mention it because Dr. Jordan calls in one of his subordinates to appear as a swift 

 witness against me as a surveyor. Jordon says: "Of these maps Capt. Moser, in his 

 hydrographic report on the islands, made certain tests. Of Mr. Elliott's shore line 

 he says: ' It was a bad misfit and rarely stood the test of an instrument angle.' He 

 fiu"ther says of the topography of the maps that 'it is so vague and indefinite that it is 

 next to impossible to do anything with them. I should call them sketches.' " 



It will do Jordan good and take the conceit out of this Capt. Moser to know that 

 these charts of mine stood the test of instrument angles to the entire satisfaction of 

 Capt. J. G. Baker, U. S. R. M., and Lieut, (now Capt.) Washburn Maynard, U. S. N., 

 in 1874, and Capt. Colson, U. S. R. M., in 1890. Each and every one of those trained 

 hydrographers expressed their approval of these charts and their siu'prise at the accu- 

 racy with which I had plotted the shore lines. Capt. Maynard, in 1874, went all over 

 the rookeries with my detailed charts of the same, made in 1872-73, and between us, 

 there, we verified and corrected every one of them, so that these records which I made 

 in those years can not be whistled down the wind by any inexperienced or jealous 

 man or men. 



Following this attempt to destroy the sense of my chart work (on p. 80), Jordan 

 raises a question, and then answers it, as usual, wrong. He says: "To each one of the 

 7 of the 10 rookeries of St. Paid Island Mr. Elliott ascribes an average width of 150 feet. 

 Two of the remaining breeding grounds have an average width of 100 feet each and 

 the third 40 feet. * * * \Vhatever the average width of each rookery may have 

 been, it was certain it was not the same for all. Neither now nor at the past times 

 Tolstoi, Polovina, Vostochin, the Reef, Kitovi, Lukannin, and Zapadin had the same 

 average width. The 150 feet is a guess and tliat only." 



A guess, and that only! Indeed. The utter ignorance of the method of my work 

 which Dr. Jordan assumes, or really is afflicted with, can be well understood when 

 I take up, for instance, the case of Tolstoi, to show how easy it is for certain people, like 

 Jordan, who, having ears, hear not; and eyes, see not. On page 38 of my 1890 report 

 which was in Jordan's hands when he first started for the seal islands, appears the 

 following detailed explanation of each and every step taken by me in surveying each 

 and every rookery as well as Tolstoi: 



Detailed analysis of the survey of Tolstoi rookery, July 10, 1910. 



[Sea margin beginning at A and ending at D.] 



Square feet. 



800 feet sea margin between A and B, with 80 feet average depth, massed. . . 64, 000 



400 feet sea margin between B and C, witli 60 feet average depth, massed 24, 000 



1,600 feet sea margin between ( ' and D, with 10 feet average depth, massed . . 16, 000 



Jag E has 300 feet of depth, with 40 feet average width, massed 12, 000 



Jag F has 100 feet of depth, with 40 feet average width, massed 4, 000 



Jag G has 120 feet of depth, with 40 feet of average width, massed 4, 800 



Total square feet 124, 800 



The annexed colored chart ' that this legend illustrates carries all these stations 

 and base line points in detail. Every topographical feature is faithfully indicated 

 on it, and these specialized lines of average de])th were drawn over these sections 

 of the herd as it lay upon the ground on that day and date — the proper time of the 

 season . 



Now, in order that this detailed analysis of Tolstoi can be summed up in one 

 compact sensil)le expression I take the entire length of its sea margin, 2,800 feet, 

 and divide the entire sum of its square feet of massed area, 124,800 feet, by it; that 



'Not printed. 



