BERING ISLAND SEAL ROOKERIES. 53 



houses are built in several rows on the raised beach at the mouth of the Gavanskaya 

 Eeshka and partly upon the sandy slope of the adjacent hills, and being mostly 

 frame structures are painted in many gay if not always tasteful colors. Prominent 

 also in this respect the new church, dedicated to St. Nicolas, raises its yellow dome over 

 a grass-green roof, while the body is painted pink with white and sky-blue trimmings ! 

 The old church of St. Inakenti is still standing, dismantled and neglected. 



At the western end of the village is located the new Government building with 

 offices for the administrator and the doctor, and next to it the new schoolhouse, both 

 rather large, but uninteresting, lead-colored structures (pi. 176). In the center of the 

 village is located the company's dwelling house for the agent (pi. 18a), painted a 

 friendly white, and surrounded by the' magazines, stores, stables, bath house, etc. 

 Beyond is the administrator's dwelling, unpretentious, but comfortable (pi. 186). The 

 sod huts are relegated to the rear, and, hardly differing from the surrounding grass, 

 are very inconspicuous (pi. 156), 



At Saranna (pi, 61) there is quite a village of small houses and huts for the women 

 in summer, when they live there in order to put up the large salmon catch. A small 

 frame cliapel was being built in 1895 on the brow of the hill back of the village. 



The summer village at Severnoye, or the north rookery, will be described under 

 the head of the latter. There was formerly also a temporary village at Staraya Gavan, 

 to accommodate the people during the planting and harvesting season, but a new one 

 has been built in its stead at Eedoskia, not far from Nikolski. 



SEAL ROOKERIES. 



It was on Bering Island that Steller, in the spring of 1741, discovered for the first 

 time the rookeries and breeding grounds of the fur-seals which he had previously 

 observed traveling northeastward toward unknown regions. His classical descriptions, 

 so well known to all naturalists, need not detain us here, except in so far as they relate- 

 to the extent and location of the rookeries. Unfortunately, his works contain very 

 little bearing directly upon this question. In his " Beschreibung der Bering Insel" 

 (Neuste Nord, Beytrage, ii, 1793, p. 289) there are a few observations, however, which 

 throw some light on the subject. On the 29th and 30th of April (new style) the 

 shipwrecked crew had killed the first bulls just arrived. Steller at once concluded 

 that they had found the breeding habitat of these animals and hoped for more to 

 follow. He says : 



In this hope we were not deceived, for numberless herds soon followed, filling the entire coast to 

 snch an extent that one could not pass by without danger to life and limbs ; nay, in some places where 

 they covered the whole shore we were often obliged to travel over the hills and rooky places. * » » 

 Tliese animals landed only on the southern side of the island,^ opposite Kamchatka, consequently at least 18 

 versts frmi the nearest place to our dwellings. * * * [This was a long way to carry the big bulls, the 

 flesh of which, moreover, was very unpalatable.] But we soon discovered that another smaller kind 

 of fur-seal, grayish of -color, which arrived with them in still greater numbers, had a much tenderer 

 and more palatable meat, without odor, which consequently could be eaten without nausea. We 

 discovered also a nearer road to these directly south from our dwellings, scarcely more than half as long 

 as the former. 



1 Steller applies the term "south side" to the entire shore, which from our better knowledge of 

 the topography of the island we would call the western shore. It is evident from various statements 

 in his works that he did not visit the true northern shore between Cape Waksell and Zapadni Mys. 



