THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 19 



walls of old, close-grained, clay-colored lava, is near tlie village of St. George, about a quarter of a mile east from tlie 

 landing, in the face of those reddish breccia blutt's that rise from the sea. It is the only example of the kind on the 

 islands. The bases or foundations of the Pribylov islands are, all of them, basaltic; some are compact and grayish- 

 wliite, but most of them exceedingly porous and ferruginous. Upon this solid floor are many hills of brown and 

 red tufa, cinder-heaps, etc. Polavina Soplca, the second point in elevation on St. Paul island, is almost entirely 

 built up of red scoria aud breccia; so is Ahluckeyak hill, on St. George, and the cap to the high bluffs opposite. 

 The village hill at St. Paul, Cone hill, the Einahnuhto peaks, Crater hill, North hill, and Little Polavina are all 

 asli-hcai)s of this character. The bluffs at the shore of Polavina point, St. Paul, show in a striking manner a 

 section of the geological structure of the i.slaud. The tufas on both islands, at the surface, decompose and weather 

 into the base of good soil, which the severe climate, however, renders useless to the husbandman. There is not a 

 trace of a granitic or a gneissic rock found in situ. Metamorphic bowlders have been collected along the beaches 

 and pushed up by the ice-lloes which have brought them down from the Siberian coast away to the northwest. 

 The dark-brown tufa bluffs and the breccia walls at the east landing of St. Paul island, known as " Black bluffs", 

 rise suddenly from the sea GO to 80 feet, with stratified horizontal lines of light-gray calcareous conglomerate, or 

 cement, in which are imbedded sundry fossils characteristic of and belonging to the Tertiary age, such as Gardium 

 grwnlandicum, C. decoratum, and Antarte pcctunculaia, etc. This is the only locality within the purview of the 

 Pribylov islands where any paleontological evidence of their age can be found. These specimens, as indicated, are 

 exceedingly abundant; I brought down a whole series, gathered there at the east landing or "Navastock", in a 

 short half hour's search and labor. 



Why thesk islands are frequented ey fur-seals. — The fact that the far-seals frequent these islands and 

 those of Bering and Copper, ou the Russian side, to the exclusion of other laud, seems at first a little singular, to 

 say the least; but when we come to examine the subject we find that these animals, when they repair hither to rest 

 lor two or three months on the laud, as they must do by their habit during the breeduig-seasou, they refpiire a cool, 

 moist atmosphere, imperatively coupled with firm, well-diained land, or dry, broken rocks, or shingle rather, upon 

 which to take their positions and remain undisturbed by the weather aud the sea for the lengthy period of repro- 

 duction. If the rookery-ground is hard and flat, with an admixture of loam or soil, puddles are speedily formed 

 in this climate, where it raius almost every day, and when not raining, rain-fogs take quick succession aud continue 

 the saturation, making thus a muddy slime, which very quickly takes the hair off' the animals wheuever it plasters 

 or wherever it fastens on them; hence, they carefully avoid any such landing. If they occupy a sandy shore the 

 rain beats that material into their large, sensitive eyes, and into their fur, so they are obliged, from simple irrita- 

 tion, to leave and hunt the sea for relief. 



The seal islands now under discussiou offer to the Finnipedia very remarkable advantages for lauding, 

 especially St. Paul, where the ground of basaltic rock and of volcanic titfa or cement slopes up from so many points 

 gradually above the sea, making thereby a perfectly -adapted resting-place for any number, from a thousand to 

 millions, of those intelligent animals, which can lie out here from May until October every year in perfect physical 

 ])eace and security. There is not a rod of ground of this character ofiered to these animals elsewhere in all Alaska, 

 not on the Aleutian chain, not ou the maiuland, hot on St. Matthew or St. Lawrence. Both of the latter islands were 

 surveyed by myself, with special reference to this query, in 1874; every foot of St. Matthew shore-line was 

 examined, and I know that the fur-seal could not rest on the low clayey lava flats there in contentment a single 

 day; hence he never has rested there, nor will he in the future. As to St. Lawrence, it is so icebound and snow- 

 covered iu spring and early summer, to say nothing of numerous other physical disadvantages, that it never becomes 

 of the slightest interest to the seals. 



J). TOE OCCUPANTS OF THE ISLANDS. 



5. THE NATIVES OF THE ISLANDS. 



Colonization by Russians and Aleuts: Early history.— When Pribylov, in taking possession, landed on 

 St. George a part of his little ship's crew, July, 1780, he knew that, as it was uninhabited, it would be necessary 

 to create a colony there, from which to draft laborers to do the killing, skinning, and curing of the peltries; there- 

 fore he aud his associates, and his rivals after him, imported natives of Ooualashka and Atkha— passive, docile 

 Aleuts. They founded their first village a quarter of a mile to the eastward of one of the principal rookeries 

 on St. George, now called "Starry Ateel", or "Old settlement"; a village was also located at Zapadnie, aud a suc- 

 cession of barrabaras planted at Garden cove. Then, during the following season, more men were brought up from 

 Atkha and taken over to St. Paul, where five or six rival traders i)osted themselves on the north shore, near and 

 at "Maroonitch", and at the head of the Big lake, among the sand-dunes there. They were then as they are now, 

 somewhat giveu to riotous living, if they only had the chance, and the ruins of the Big lake settlement are pleasantly 

 remembered by the descendants of those pioneers to-day, ou St. Paul, who take off' their hats as they pass by, to 



