56 THE ASIATIC FUE-SEAL ISLANDS. 



The company's salt house is located 500 feet north of the killing grounds, at the 

 extreme north end of the escarpment, and its reddish-brown walls and roof are 

 visible all around for a considerable distance, being, in fact, the best landmark on 

 this part of the island. It is a frame building, originally 45 by 26 feet, with a later 

 eastern addition 20 by 24 feet. On the north side a plank " chute " and stairs lead 

 down the escarpment to the beach below. (PI. 24). 



Southeast of the killing-grounds, about 1,200 feet from the beach, and between 60 

 and 70 feet above the sea, the mud-hut village of the natives, where the men live 

 during the killing season, is located, and directly in front, north of the new huts, the 

 only wooden dwellings of the place— one belonging to the Russian Government, in 

 which the kossak and his family reside, the other (16 by 20 feet) built by the company 

 for its employees. Formerly the company's "sealer" lived in a small frame hut just 

 east of the salt house, but this is now used for storing salt in sacks, while the kossak 

 occupied a mud hut or yurt a little farther east (pi. 256). 



There has of late years been several distinct yurt or mud-house villages at this 

 rookery. The first one was situated just back of the coast escarpment, west of the 

 salt house, and between it and the present driveway, scarcely more than an eighth of a 

 mile from the rookery. This was inhabited until 1877. In 1878 Mr. Grebnitski ordered 

 the village to be moved back and the new yurts were built an eighth of a mile southeast 

 of and farther up on the hill than the former. The yurts, or barabras, were low and 

 small and dark, musty and dirty, and have recently become entirely unfit for use. A 

 series of new ones have now been erected and others are still being built immediately 

 east of the former site, and these are in every way supplied with "modern improve- 

 ments," inasmuch as they are comparatively large, dry, and provided with windows. 

 They are built entirely above ground, and constructed of uprights rammed into the 

 ground and covered on the inside with boards nailed on lengthwise. The walls and 

 roof are then covered with a thick layer of sod (pi. 16a). On the whole, they are rather 

 comfortable and warm, being certainly more suited to the climate and the wants of 

 the people than the ordinary frame houses. 



The appended map of this rookery (pi. 94) is the result of a traverse plane table 

 survey made July 9 to 19, 1895, in the intervals between the rain and fog. A base line, 

 exactly one-fourth of a statute mile long, was carefully measured off on the level 

 ground to the west of the salt house. About 100 angles, from 14 stations, were meas- 

 ured. Another map of the same rookery was made by me in 1882-83, but on a con- 

 siderably smaller scale, by means of an azimuth compass and pediometer. The new 

 and more detailed survey confirmed the accuracy of the old map. There has never 

 been published any map of this rookery. 



THE SOUTH EOOKBEY. (Plate 98.) 



The South Eookery of Bering Island {Poludionnoye lezhhishtche) is now a very 

 insignificant affair. As mentioned above, it is the only remnant of the countless 

 number of seals which Steller saw on this side of the island. Situated at 55° 57' 

 north latitude, on the west coiist of the island, halfway between Northwest Cape and 

 Cape Manati and nearly 16 miles in a straight line from the village Nikolski, it occupies 

 a narrow, curved beach under the steep bluffs of the coast escarpment, which here rises 

 perpendicularly from 00 to 100 feet high. A beautiful waterfall in the next bight to 

 the east forms a very conspicuous landmark (pi. 326), and three-fourths of a mile to 



