146 THE ASIATIC FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 



Zapalata and Sikatchinskaya were the mainstay of the rookery, however. There 

 the breeding seals were absolutely safe against all possible interruptions from the land 

 side, while the bays themselves are wonderfully sheltered by reefs and outlying rocks, 

 thus affording admirable places of safety for the growing pups, features which will be 

 fully appreciated by an inspection of plates 55 and 56. 



To illustrate the condition of these rookeries during the palmy days of the 

 business I am fortunate enough to be able to copy a couple of Yoloshinof s photo- 

 graphs (pis. 53 and 57a) made in 1885, to which I shall refer more in detail later on.' 



GLINKA ROOKEEIES, 1895. (Plate 102.) 



On the 2d of August I approached the Glinka rookeries in a boat from the north 

 and proceeded along their entire front from Lebiazhi Mys to Babinskaya Bukhta, 

 where we camped. I saw breeding seals in most of the places where I formerly saw 

 them, but in vastly reduced numbers. Bachelors were also seen, but they were few 

 and far between. At Pestshaui hauling ground, the place which once supplied many 

 thousands, and which even as late as 1893 furnished 3,137 skins, there was not a single 

 bachelor. True, a drive had been made from that place only a few days earlier, which 

 had resulted in 700 skins, but these 700 skins were all that this famous hauling ground 

 yielded in 1895. 



However, the location of nearly all the former hauling grounds was marked, not so 

 much by little bunches of a dozen bachelors or so, but, curiously enough,' by a line of 

 black half-bulls. They had hauled up and occupied the beaches with regular intervals, 

 much as do the old bulls in spring before the arrival of the females; in fact, they were 

 in a measure playing sikatch! These lonesome, patiently waiting polusikatchi were 

 first seen at the old hauling grounds on both sides of Lebiazhi Mys, and then on the 

 west side of Peresheyek and of Pestshani Mys, and finally at the eastern end of 

 Babinskaya Bukhta. At these places they had hauled out by themselves. But, in 

 addition, hundreds of these nearly mature young bulls (or sexually nature, though 

 not strong enough to fight the older ones) skirted the breeding grounds, hauling out 

 on outlying rocks and paying attention to the females coming out for a swim or a trip 

 to the distant feeding grounds. On the breeding grounds dark-haired, vigorous- 

 looking bulls abounded. 



This superabundance of vigorous, mature males was a strongly marked feature of 

 the rookery. This is the more remarkable if we remember that it was already late in 

 the season when I visited Glinka and that, although I stayed until August 11, 1 saw 

 no diminution of it. The natives also informed me that on account of the still greater 

 number of bulls earlier in the season the fighting had been violent and incessant on 

 the rookeries. This abundance of bulls I have been told has been noticed for several 

 years. 



In strong contrast to this exuberance of virility was the thinness of the female 

 ranks. They spread over nearly the same territory as formerly, but the lines had 

 shrunk and in many places there were large bare gaps. The magnificent Palata 



'In 1897, having Voloshinof's picture with me, I was able to locate its standpoint exactly and 

 duplicate his exposure of 1885. The result is pi. 72. Where his photograph shows teeming masses 

 of seals sporting on the barren clay, mine shows these clayey hills overgrown with grass and no seals. 



