62 FUE-SEAL HEED OF ALASKA. 



feet, when the herd is in fine form and condition). The cows in the 

 harems present a uniformly rusty tone, which shows that the pups 

 are all born for the season, practically. In the whole field of view 

 under our eyes the proportion of new arrivals among the cows, as is 

 shown by their silvery coats (gray backs and white bellies), is not 

 one in fifty. The bulls appear in good form, not somnolent; and the 

 proportion of young 6 to 8 year old bulls is quite large, though the 

 number, all told, is far below the normal ratio; the cows are exceeding 

 the males far, far beyond the limits of 1872 and 1874. There is no 

 fighting under our eyes; no bull bears a mark upon his back, sides, or 

 flippers, which is the evidence of fighting, if there be such, or has been 

 such this season on this place. No dead, sick, or trampled pups here; 

 no cows "torn to pieces" by the bulls either; not one. 



Looking back and up under the slope of Black Bend to the base ot 

 this point of view from Old John Rock, the cap, we find that the 

 entire area of 1890 occupied by breeding seals is reduced to nothing, 

 save those few harems noted thereon by us at the start, on the margin 

 of the scene, until we reach that first point of massing which we have 

 just described. There are no half-bulls in sight at the rear or at the 

 water's margin, and only five or sLx virile bulls in the rear. As we 

 proceed from Garbotch Bight ^ onward, jags M, N, and O, of 1890 

 have entirely disappeared; nothmg remains except six massed harems 

 at the foot of jag AI, and four ragged harems in between, at wide 

 intervals, at the water's edge; from the bight we go to the foot of 

 jags L, K, and J, of 1890, and find there is a complete elimination of 

 all of that breedmg-seal life save six ragged harems between ja^ M 

 and the foot of jag L. Upon the ground occupied by the breedmg 

 seals in 1890, of jags K and L, is to-aay a band of hoUuschickie, which 

 we fhid to be composed nine-tenths of yearlings and the balance 2- 

 year-olds, with the exception of a few 6-year-ola and 5-year-old bulls 

 hauled with them. 



As we proceed we find that jags J and K are entirely eliminated, 

 and in lieu thereof 10 harems are now scattered over the vacant 

 interval, 3 of those harems being normal and the others ragged. We 

 see no half-bulls in the rear or on the water's edge, nor are there any 

 idle bulls. 



As we proceed to the finish of the Garbotch Ime we find that jags 

 I and H of 1890 have completely disappeared, save at the extreme 

 water's edge, and down there and between the lava pockets are 8 or 

 10 massed harems and 7 or 8 ragged or scattered ones, with no evi- 

 dence of an idle bull or the appearance of polsecatchie in the water 

 or at the rear. 



This completes our survey to-day of the breedmg line of Garbotch. 



From there we proceed to Ardiguen, on the Reef Point. 



1 This desolated area was not so in 1872-1874, the following attests: "The adaptation of this ground of 

 the Reef Rookery to the requirements of the seal is perfect. It so lies that it falls gently from its high 

 Zoltoi Bay margin over Garbotch Bight on the west to the sea on the east; and upon its'broad expanse 

 not a solitary puddle of mud spotting is to bo seen, though everything is reeking with moisture and the 

 fog even dissolves into rain as we view the scene. Every trace of vegetation upon this parade has been 

 obliterated; a few tufts of grass, capping the summits of those rocky hillocks indicated on the eastern and 

 middle slope, are the only signs of botanical life that the seals have suffered to remain." 



A small rock (see Vichie Kammen) five or six hundred feet away and out to sea is also covered with 

 the black and yellow forms of fur seals and sea lions. It is environed by shoal reefs, rough and kelp- 

 grown, which navigators prudently avoid. 



"This rookery of the reef proper "has 4,016 feet of sea margin, with an average depth of 150 feet, making 

 ground for 301,000 breeding seals and their young. Garbotch Rookery has 3,606 feet of sea margin, with 

 an average depth of 100 feet, making ground for 183,000 breeding seals and young; an aggregate for this 

 great Reef Rookery of 484,000 breeding seals and young. Heavy as this enumeration is, yet this aggre- 

 gate only makes tlae Reef Rookery third in importance compared with the others which we are yet to 

 describe." (Monograph Seal Islands of Alaska: Elliott: 1874, p. 51.) 



