RELATING TO PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 11 



hardly a day in which I did not have a chance to examine the rookeries 

 and observe rookery life in its varied forms. In all my work npon 

 the islands I was constantly attended by native Aleuts, who assisted 

 in transporting my instruments and other impedimenta. Several of 

 these could speak fair English. Our intim ite daily relations, which ex- 

 tended over nearly three months, were under conditions that offered 

 neither incentive to secrecy nor to deception, and, while their general 

 views on and theory of seal life are to be received with caution, they 

 are keen observers of little details, and I'rom them, their friends, and 

 old Eussian records on the islands 1 received many valual)le hints of 

 a natural-history and historical character. 



This little group of islets, consisting, in theorderof their magnitude, 

 of St. Paul, St. George, Otter, and Walrus islands, were 

 created in the shallow waters of Bering Sea by volcanic ^"'"'"*' ^'^""'^'• 

 agency. Outpour upon outpour of basaltic lava gave to St. Paul low- 

 lying sea margins which the waves and ice ground into 

 bowlders, pebbles, and sand, and distributed into long *'*' ^''^''^ ^'^""'^• 

 reaches of sandy shore at several points. The island lies to day, except 

 for these minor changes, just as it was created. Cliffs are infrequent 

 and there are from 20 to 25 miles of alternating areas of san<l, rocky 

 ledges, and l)owlder-covered shores that could be made available, did 

 an expanding herd demand it, for the uses of the seal. About 37 or 38 

 miles to the southeast lies the second largest of the ^^^ ^^^^ 

 group, St. George, which, though formed in the same ' '^°^^^ 

 manner as its neighbor, has nevertheless been so modified by orographic 

 movement as to form a strong contrast to it topographically. Bold, 

 towering cliffs are the rule, low-lying shores aie rare, and it can boast 

 of only about 6 or 8 miles of leally satisfactory rookery sx>ace along 

 the entire sea front. As a natural result St. Paul can and does support 

 a far greater seal population than St. George. 



The greatest length of either of these islands would be covered by 12 

 miles, while 6 would easily span them at their widest ^.^ 

 part. Otter and Walrus islands, the former about 

 miles to the southward and the latter about 7 miles to the eastward of 

 St. Paul, are mere rocky remnants and now play no 

 ]iart as breeding grounds for the seal, and it is qiies- j^i^naJ '^"'^ ^^airus 

 tionable if they ever did. The islands are far removed 

 from other land areas, the nearest point on the Aleutian Archipelago 

 lying 200 miles to the southward. 



The meteorologic conditions in these latitudes are such that fogs and 

 mists hang so continitously over the land and water as 

 to make navigation very uncertain and dangerous. So diMonr™^*'"''^ ''°" 

 all-enveloping are these vapors that it is often impossi- 

 ble to see the shore a quarter of a mile distant, and so fickle are the 

 fogs and mists that I ascended Bogaslov, the central cone of the island 

 of St. Paul, five times before I could catch a glimpse of the hills imme- 

 diately surrounding it, and this, too, when each occasion was selected 

 for its promise ot clearness. The temperature of the warm season aver- 

 ages about 45° or 50°, and, though no trees grow upon the islands, the 

 excessive humidity is so favorable for grasses, flowers, and other herb- 

 age that they grow with a rapidity and flourish with a luxuriance diffi- 

 cult to realize aiul unknown in the north temperate zone. 



Many ex])lanations have been ofl'ered of the seals having selected 

 these islands as their home. My observation does not 

 enable me to state their reason for having done so, but ^"^ - 



the fact remains substantiated by my experince and that of all others 

 of whom in(j[uiries were made that these remote, rock-bound, fog- 



