4a THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



11. DES0RrPTIO:N^ OF THE FUE-SEAL EOOKEEIES OF ST. PAUL AND ST. GEOEGE. 



Dearth of infoeiniation concerning the facts about the rookeries. — Before I cim intelligently 

 and clearly present an accurate estimate of the aggregate number of fur-seals which appear upon those great, 

 breediug-grouncls of the Pribylov group every season, I must take up, in regular sequence, my survcy.s of these 

 remarkable rookeries which I have illustrated in this memoir by the accompanying sketch-maps, showing 

 topographi<;ally the superficial area and distribution assumed by the seal-life at each locality. 



It will be observed, that the sum total on St. Paul island preponderates, and completely overshadows that 

 which is represented at St. George. Before passing to the detailed discussion of each rookery, it is well to call 

 attention to a few salient features in regard to the present appearance of the seals on these breeding-grounds, which 

 latter are of their own selection. Touching the location of the fur-seals to-day, as I have recorded and surveyed it, 

 compared with their distribution in early times, I am sorry to say that there is not a single line on a chart, or a 

 worti printed in a book, or a note made in manuscript, which refers to this all-imi)ortant subject, prior to ray own 

 work, whiiih I jiresent herewith for the first time to the public. The absence of definite information in regard to 

 what I conceive to be of vital interest and importance to the whole business, astonished me ; I could not at first 

 believe it; and, for the last four or five years, I have beeu searching among the archives of the old Eussiau 

 company, as I searched diligently when up there, and elsewhere in the territory of Alaska, for some evidence in 

 contradiction of this statement which I have just made. I wanted to find — I hoped to discover — some old record, 

 some clue, by which I could measure with authority and entire satisfaction to my own mind, the relative volume of 

 seal life in the past, as compared with that which I record in the present, but was disa])pointed. 



I am unable, throughout the whole of the following discussion, to cite a single reliable statement which can 

 give any idea as to the condition and numbers of the fur-seal on these islands, when they were discovered in 17S6-'87, 

 or during the whole time of their occupation since, up to the date of my arrival. I mark this so consjjicuously, 

 for it is certainly a very strange oversight, a kind of neglect, which, in my opinion, has been, to say the least, 

 inexcusable. 



Eussian records. — In attempting to form an approximate conception of what the seals were or might 

 have been in those early days, as they spread themselves over the hauling- and breeding-grounds of these remarkable 

 islands, I have been thrown entirely upon the vague statements given to me by the natives and one or two of the 

 first American pioneers in Alaska. The only Eussian record which touches ever so lightly upon the subject* 

 contains the remarkable statement, which is, in the light of my surveys, simply ridiculous now, that is, that the 

 number of fur-seals on St. George during the first years of Eussian occupation, was nearly as great as that on St. 

 Paul. The most superficial examination of the geological character portrayed on the accompanying maps of 

 these two islands, will satisfy any unprejudiced mind as to the total error of such a statement. "Why, a mere tithe only 

 of the multitudes which repair to St. Paul, in perfect comfort, over the sixteen to twenty miles of splendid landing- 

 ground found thereon, could visit St. George, when all of the coastline fit for their reception at this island, is 

 a scant two and a half miles; but for that matter there was, at the time of my arrival and in the beginning of my 

 investigation, a score of equally wild and incredible legends afloat in regard to the rookeries on St. Paul and St. 

 George. Finding, therefore, that the whole work must be undertaken de novo, I set about it without further delay. 



Immense mortality of the seals in 183G.— Prior to the year 1835, no native on the islands seemed to 

 have any direct knowledge or was acquainted with a legendary tradition even, in relation to the seals, concerning 

 .their area and distribution on the land here; but they all chimed in after that date with great unanimity, saying 

 that the winter jireceding this season (1835- 3G) was one of i'rightful severity; that many of their ancestors who had 

 lived on these islands in large barraboras just back of the Black bluffs, near the i^resent village, and at Polavina, 

 then perished miserably. 



They say that the cold continued far into the summer; that immense masses of clearer and stronger ice- 

 floes than had ever been known to the waters about the islands, or were ever seen since, were brought down and 



* Veni9miiiov : Zapieskie ob Oonalashkenskaho Otdayla, 2 vols., Sf. Petersburg, 1842. This work of Bishop Innocent Venianiinov is 



the only one which the Russians cau lay claim to as exhibiting anylhiug like a history of western Alaska, or of giving a sketch of its 

 inhabitants and resources, thai has the least merit of tnitli, or the faintest stamp of reliability. Without it we should be simply in the 

 dark as to much of what the Russians were about during the whole period of their occupation and possession of that country. He served, 

 chielly as a priest and nussiouary, for 25 years, from 1814 to 18o9, at Oonalashka, having the seal-islands in his parish, and was m.ide bishop 

 of all Alaskar. He was soon after recalled to Russia, where he has since become the i)riniate of the national church, ranking second to no 

 man in the empire, save the czar ; he is advanced in years, being now more than 90 years of age. He must have been a man of fine personal 

 appearance, judging from the following description of him, noted by Sir George Simpscm, who met him at Sitka, in 1K42, just as he was 

 about to embark for Russia: "His appearance, lb which I have already alluded, impresses a stranger \\ith something of awe, while in 

 further intercourse, the gentleness which characteiizes his every word and deed, insensildy molds reverence into love ; and, at the same 

 time, his talents and attainments are such as to be woithy of his exalted station. With all this, the bishop is sufficiently a man of the 

 world to disdain anything like cant. His conversation, on the contrary, teems with amusement and instruction, and his coini>any is 

 much prized by all who have the honor of his ac(iuaiutanee." Such is the portrait drawn of him by a governor of the Hudson's U.ay 

 Company. [Veniaminov died since the above note was written, at Moscow, April 22, 1879. — H. W. E.] 



