A Fish or an Animal 155 



the only wooded plants are dwarf willow about six inches 

 high and a species of crowberry, whose slender, wiry stems 

 grope about in the moss. 



In summer the air is chill and damp. The sun is seldom 

 seen, and everything is enveloped in thick fog. In August 

 and September the clear days become more numerous. The 

 winters are cold, but the days are often clear. Much snow 

 falls, but it is blown off into the sea by the driving winds. 

 In the latter part of the winter great masses of floe-ice drift 

 down from the north and pack about the islands. 



Take it all in all, the climate of St. Paul is not one to 

 attract human beings; but for the chief inhabitants of the 

 islands, the fur seals, or " sea bears," as Steller called them, 

 the climate is very satisfactory. The fur seals chose these 

 islands for their homes on account of the damp and cloudy 

 atmosphere and inaccessibility. They took up their abode 

 upon them long years before man knew either the fur seals 

 or the islands. They have no other home and do not land 

 elsewhere than on the islands. 



On the rocky shores of St. Paul and St. George Islands 

 the fur seals have established their rookeries. To these they 

 return with unerring precision each spring, the older ones 

 coming back each year to the very same spot. On these 

 rookeries they bring forth their offspring and remain until 

 the storms of November and December drive them away. 

 They then swim out through the passes of the Aleutian 

 Islands into the North Pacific, in which they spend the 

 winter. The older females and the bachelors go as far 

 south as the coast of California, but the younger seals rarely 

 pass beyond the latitude of Cape Flattery. The adult males 

 do not go far south, and probably spend the winter in the 

 Gulf of Alaska. 



The old bulls return first to the islands. They begin to 

 arrive about the middle of May, climbing over the ice to their 

 place of the last year. Once located on his place, the bull 

 never leaves it for upwards of three months. He will at- 



