144 THE ASIATIC FUK-SEAL ISLANDS. 



that place. The men were therefore obliged to take the skins at Yodopad and 

 Krepkaya Pad, which meant that they had to carry every skin on their backs across 

 the island. When it is considered that the population, even under ordinary 

 circumstances, was rather insufficient for the work, it may easily be understood what 

 a hardship this increase of the rookery involved. But not only the breeding seals 

 were increasing, the bachelors were also extending their territory. The result was 

 that skins were taken in Malinka Bukhta for the first time. At this place the women 

 did the skinning and carrying, for even here the skins had to be carried, while the 

 men were engaged at Krepkaya Pad. 



In addition to the map I have submitted three original field sketches of the rookery 

 as I found it on July 3, 1883 (pis. 41-43). While making no claim for artistic merit I 

 do claim for them sufficient accuracy for an intelligent comparison with my photographs 

 of 1895, which were taken from the identical standpoints. The sketches have not 

 been touched since I left the rookery in 1883 and are here reproduced in facsimile so 

 as to eliminate the possibility of even unintentional alterations. 



KAEABBLNOTB EOOKBKT, 1895. (Plate 300.) 



On July 31, 1895, Mr. Grebnitski and I landed in Stolbovaya Bukhta and pitched 

 our tent on the beach just west of the killing ground. It was very foggy and the 

 water high, so that we could not pass the point into Martishina Bukhta. Next . 

 morning, at 4.30 a. m., the fog still prevailed, but the water was low and we made our 

 way along the beach to the rookery. We passed on to the Stolp without meeting a 

 seal, where in 1883 thousands of breeding seals blocked the way of the drives. Only 

 a small solid patch, leaning on the south base of the cliff, remained, an isolated outpost 

 at this end of the rookery. At the Stolp itself we found a couple of small harems 

 only at the northern end, and toward the southern extremity a small patch of bach- 

 elors, hardly more than a dozen. In the distance I could discern through the fog 

 faint outlines only of the breeding grounds. 



After breakfast the fog lifted and I ascended the bluffs, which rise 300 feet above 

 the breeding grounds. The photographs which are herewith appended (pis. 38-40) 

 were taken from the various stations at the edge of these bluffs, marked on the maps, 

 care being taken to select the same points from which I had made my sketches twelve 

 years previously. 



I found that while on the whole the breeding grounds had retained their former 

 shape— necessarily, because of the natural conditions of the beach— there was a 

 great thinning out of the ranks of the females. At the same time a large area at the 

 northwestern end had become nearly depopulated. At first I credited the thinness 

 of the breeding herds to the bright weather, but another visit to the heights the next 

 morning showed no improvement. 



That day I saw no bachelors, except the little patch at the Stolp j none at 

 Vodopad and Krepkaya Pad. At Malinka Bukhta, I was informed, they had ceased to 

 haul up several years ago. The next day we saw a few more bachelors, a somewhat 

 larger patch— at the Stolp, and two other patches, of possibly a hundred seals each, 

 one on each side of the Yodopadski Nepropusk. 



But one feature that struck me with surprise was the great number of hulls and 

 half-bulls. This abundance of old males was particularly interesting, coming, as I 

 did, directly from Bering Island, where this element was so scarce. 



