June 29, 1882] 



NATURE 



199 



It will, therefore, of itself, cleave in the way described, and the 

 flow of water will thereby be hindered at the constrictions, and 

 aided at the places of bulging out. Thus lines of easiest flow 

 will be set up, which in their turn will determine the farrows on 

 the back of the wave. The fringe of drops is due to the splitting 

 in a similar manner of the cylindrical jets shot out from the 

 places of bulging, where the flow is aided. Indeed, much of 

 the seething at the edge of a wave is, I think, attributable to the 

 breaking up of such jets in this manner. !n the case of the 

 minute phenomenon of a drop-splash, I have been able, in some 

 degree, to bring this explanation to the test of measurements, 

 which, so far as they go, quite confirm it. The regularly-toothed 

 edge of a spot of candle-wax that has fallen on a cold object, 

 affords in a permanent form a familiar illustration of the same 

 action. A. M. WoRTHlNGTON 



Clifton College, Bristol, June 20 



THE SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA J 



TEN years have only just elapsed since the Govern- 

 ment of the United States of America obtained by 

 treaty the territory of Alaska, including the seal islands 

 situated off its coast in the Bering Sea, and at that time 

 although the sealskin trade occupied thousands of hands, 

 and had done so for at least a century previous, yet next 

 to nothing was known of the animal producing the skins, 

 and there was not, even in the museum of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, a perfect skin and skeleton thereof. 

 This state of things has happily now vanished, and 

 through the joint action of Prof. Spencer Baird and the 

 Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. Mr, 

 Henry W, Elliott, was enabled to visit the Pribylov 

 Islands in 1872, and we cannot but admire the zeal and 

 energy which enabled him to reside in these dreary and 

 desolate places all through the seasons of 1872 to 1874 

 inclusive. While a brief digest of Mr. Elliot's notes were 

 published in 1S74, it is only now that he has been 

 enabled to publish a complete monograph on the subject, 

 an emended copy of which, reprinted from the Report on 

 the Fishery Industries of the Tenth Census at Washington 

 in this year, is now before us. It forms a quarto volume 

 of some 176 pages, and is illustrated by two maps and 

 twenty-nine plates of subjects from the author's pencil. 

 The writer's opportunities for observation, it will be 

 noticed, were especially good. The previous observa- 

 tions of Stellar and others left much to be desired. The 

 geographical distribution of the Arctic fur seal (Callo- 

 rhinus) is very peculiar. In the Arctic waters of the 

 Atlantic they have not been found, in the corresponding 

 waters of the Pacific they are virtually confined to four 

 islands in Bering's Sea, namely St. Paul and St. George 

 of the tiny Pribylov group, and Bering and Copper 

 Islands of the Commander group On the former two 

 they swarm. On the latter two, though the larger in 

 area, the seals do not occur in such quantities. It seems 

 impossible to avoid the reflection here as to the waste of 

 fur seal life in the Antarctic regions, and along the coasts 

 of South America, from which, as a centre, the Arctic 

 forms, probably, originally came. Not a century ago the 

 fur seals rested on the Falkland Islands in millions for 

 hundreds that are to be found there now, and it seems 

 hopeless to expect that a British parliament could, with 

 all its many labours, trouble itself to frame regulations, 

 such as the Russians and Americans have done, with 

 the object of repeopling, even in time, these splendid 

 breeding-grounds which, on the Falklands, lie in the very 

 track of commerce, and which, unlike the Alaskan Islands, 

 have beautiful and safe harbours. 



The Pribylov Islands were discovered by the hardy 

 navigator whose name they bear, in 17S6, and one of 

 the islands is called after his sloop, the St. George. He 

 took possession in the name of Russia. Almost striking 

 against the island in a fog, the sweet music to his ears of 



1 "A Monograph of the Seal Islands of Alaska," by Henry W. Elliott. 

 Reprinted, with Additions, from the Report on the Fishery Industries of the 

 Tenth Census (U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries). Washington. 

 February, 1882. 



numerous seal rookeries was wafted towards him. For a 

 little time he kept his secret ; but he was soon watched, and 

 his treasure had to be shared with others. These islands 

 lie in the heart of Bering Sea ; they are just far enough 

 south to be beyond the reach of permanent ice-floes, upon 

 which the Polar bears could have reached them. Fog 

 banks shut out the sun nine days out of ten during 

 summer, and the breeding season. By the middle of 

 October strong, cold winds from the Siberian Steppes 

 sweep across them. By the end of January great fields 

 of sludgy, broken ice bear down on them ; and from 

 December to May, or June, they lie ice-bound. It is 

 owing to this constant, cold, moist, shady, gray weather, 

 that these islands are frequented by such millions of the 

 fur seals. Let the sun but shine out, and the temperature 

 rise to 6o° F., or 64° F. in the shade, and both seals and 

 natives are at once incommoded by the glare and heat. 

 During the winter of 1S72-73 Mr. Elliott, while watching 

 with all the impatience which a man in full health and tired 

 of confinement can possess, to seize every opportunity 

 upon quiet intervals between the storms of sleet, in order 

 to make a short trip for exercise, only got out three times, 

 and then only by the exertion of great physical energy. 

 On one occasion the temperature sank to - 4.", and the wind 

 velocity, as recorded by one of the Signal Service ane- 

 mometers, was at the rate of 88 miles per hour. This storm 

 lasted for six days. The average summer temperature 

 is between 46° and 50 F. in ordinary seasons. The cloud 

 effects are, as might be anticipated, something wonderful, 

 but the aurora is scarcely to be seen. The islands are of 

 volcanic formation ; their vegetation seems interesting, 

 and algae (seaweeds) seem to abound. This is the 

 weakest part ol the author's report, and it would be well 

 worthy of the Smithsonian Institute to have the whole 

 flora of these islands carefully investigated. Only a few 

 very hardy vegetables are raised on St. Paul's. As yet, 

 rats seem not to have landed on the islands, though mice 

 have become troublesome, and the cats brought to keep 

 the mice in order, have by inordinate indulgence in meat 

 (seal) eating, become wonderfully altered ; they are de- 

 scribed as "stubby balls," having become thickened, 

 short, losing the greater portion of their tails (in the 

 second and third generations), and their voices are altered 

 into a prolonged, fearful cry, that surpasses anything ever 

 heard in these countries. So bad is this caterwauling, 

 that it even at times arouses the wrath of the sluggish 

 Aleutians. Foxes and lemmings abound on St. George : 

 the latter are not found at St. Paul's. Birds abound, and 

 though fishes are scarce, invertebrate life in the waters 

 of the group seems abundant. The " natives " of the 

 island were about 400 in number in 1SS0, of whom some 

 eighteen were whites (Russian), and the rest Aleutians. 

 The births never equalled the deaths, but they are con- 

 stantly being recruited by the Alaskan Commercial Com- 

 pany. Now-a-days the people are comfortably housed 

 and well clothed. Seal meat is their staple food j and 

 by the regulation of the Treasury they can kill, every 

 autumn, an average of twenty-three to thirty young seals 

 for each man, woman, and child in the settlement. As 

 each pup averages ten pounds of good meat, this would 

 show an average of about 600 pounds of flesh meat for 

 each. To this diet they add butter, sweet crackers, and 

 sugar. They are passionately fond of butter. No epicure 

 could appreciate good butter more than these people, and 

 the sweetest of all sweet teeth are to be found in the jaws 

 of an Aleut. The Company allows them fairly liberal 

 supplies of these, also rice and tobacco. As an illustra- 

 tion of the working ability of the natives on the seal 

 grounds, the following shows the actual time occupied by 

 them in finishing up the three seasons' work which Mr. 

 Elliott personally supervised on St. Paul's Island. 

 In 1S72, 50 days' work of 71 men secured 75,000 skins. 

 In 1873, 40 ,, 71 ,, 75.ooo ,, 



In 1S74, 36 ,, 84 „ 90,000 ,, 



