INVESTIGATION" OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 77 



Next, we come to jag 3, of the 1890 survey. We find within its 

 borders 7 bulls with about 600 cows — not a young bull in sight and 

 no polsecatchie. We also find 1 bull with 1 cow under jag 2. 



Under jag 1 we find 5 bulls and about 175 cows. 



Coming now to the "grotto," we find 1 bull and about 30 cows, 

 there being 22 pups here. 



At Polovina Point, and right on the summit of the point, we find 

 8 bulls and about 200 cows, with 3 young 6-year-old bulls in the water 

 below and a small band of holluschiekie, the number of which it is 

 hard to estimate, as they play in the surf and over the rocks awash. 



From Polovina Point we proceed westward and around to the 

 finish of this rookery's sea margin at the intersection of the sand. 

 Here we observe the greatest massing on this rookery, the number 

 of which we estimate at about 50 bulls and about 7,000 cows. A 

 mere handful of hclluschickie are seen here, no young bulls, no polse- 

 catchie, and only two or three 6-year old bulls in the water. These 

 bulls are massed within an area of 500 feet from the point and lay 

 up in the old half-moon form on the original rookery, where 240,000 

 cows and pups laid 40 years ago. From this small nucleus of 1913 

 it is very likely that the withered Polovina oak of 1874 will again 

 grow. 1 



It is also interesting, as we close this survey of the St. Paul rook- 

 eries with this one of Polovina, to note the fact that as the rookery 

 lay in 1874 as a half-moon on the side of a gently sloping hill up 

 from the sea, so now it seems to start anew after one year's rest, 

 The same order of growth seems instinctively to show itself here by 

 the massing of these harems as described above. 



It can not be overlooked as we write these notes, closing this 

 hand-to-hand examination of every foot of these Pribilof rookery 

 margins, that the young male fife which was sought to be reestab- 

 lished by the Hitchcock rules in 1904 is wholly missing. Only here 

 and there and at rare intervals do we see a young 5 or 6 year old 

 bull. Had those rules and regulations of 1904 been faithfully ob- 

 served, there would have been thousands of them at the rookery 

 margins at this hour and in their rear. 



We also have to say, in connection with the work done this morn- 

 ing at Northeast Point, that that total absence of fighting bulls and 

 tearing of cows to pieces and trampling of pups has been universal 

 throughout the entire survey of all these Pribilof breeding seals from 

 start to finish. 



1 With regard to the form of this seal life on Polovina in 1872-1874, as contrasted with the condition it 

 is now in, the following official record is made of it (p. 42, H. Doc. No. 175, 54th Cong., 1st sess.). to wit: 



"The ringing, iron-like basaltic foundations of the island are here (Polovina) setting up boldly from the 

 sea to a height of 40 or 50 feet, black and purplish-red, polished like ebony by the friction of the surf, and 

 worn by its agency into grotesque arches, tiny caverns, and deep fissures. Surmounting this lava bed is 

 a cap of ferruginous cement and tufa from 3 to 10 feet thick, making a reddish floor, upon which the seals 

 patter in their restless, never-ceasing evolutions, sleeping and waking, on the island. It is as great a 

 single parade plateau of polished cement as is that of the reef. 



"The rookery itself * * * is placed at the southern termination and gentle sloping of the long 

 reach of Polovina's bluff wall, which is the only clifi between Lukannon and Novestoshnah * * *. 



"It presents itself to the eye with great scenic effect, * * * covered with an infinite detail of massed 

 seals in reproduction * * *." 



Then again, in July, 1890, the following contrast is drawn, looking back to 1872-1874, p. 44, following the 

 above: 



"So when I regard this ground to-day, after an interval of 16 years since my last survey, I find a square 

 declaration from the ground itself of loss to this rookery of one-half of its female life, while its breeding bulls 

 are not equal to one-fifteenth of their number here in 1872. Then, too, the utter absence of a young bull 

 on the vacant spaces in the rookery or in the water at its sea margin; and, still more remarkable in con- 

 trast, that pronounced utter absence of the holluschiekie from their grand parade ground here — that silent, 

 empty space before me on which at this time in 1872 anywhere from 75,000 to 100,000 holluschiekie were 

 trooping in and out of the water frolicking in tireless antics one with another or wrapped in profound 

 sleep * * *." 



