INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 79 



existing and swarming on that immense sweep from Websters Point. 

 To the crest of Hutchinsons Hill from here it is overgrown with grass, 

 and it was totally abandoned by the seals evidently many years ago. 



On reaching station A we find the first seals surviving from the 

 survey of 1890. We find here the best depth of a single gathering of 

 the herd that we have seen outside of the massing under Garbotch; 

 it is at least five harems deep. We find from 750 to 800 cows and 

 from 38 to 40 bulls. On the water's edge we find four or five 6-year 

 old bulls. 



This feature of normal massing of harems at this point is imme- 

 diately lost as we proceed toward Sea Lion Neck, or station B, and 

 on reaching that foot of it we find a second semimassing, three harems 

 deep, of about 120 cows. On the rocks of this station is the first 

 noteworthy squad of holluschickie that we have encountered, per- 

 haps 200 or 300 of them. We find here about 35 bulls and about 

 800 cows. We find here the first big sea lion seen thus far in our 

 survey. 



From station B to the neck it is all abandoned, even every sea lion 

 has gone, with the exception of about 100 holluschickie and two 

 ragged harems about midway between the neck and this station. 



From the neck we go to Northeast Point and find nothing, 1 thus 

 closing the entire aggregate of breeding seals on the east margin as 

 compared with the survey of 1890. 



On our arrival at the point we find a rookery of sea lions which 

 closely resembles the aggregate of 1890; in other words, there may 

 be 1,500 of them. There is certainly a fine aggregate and no danger 

 of extermination to this life on the island. 



From the Point we proceed west to the Asses Ears. Under the 

 immediate flank of them and the sea-lion rookery, we encounter a 

 ragged seal-harem, together with one idle bull in the rear. 



Starting at the foot of station L, we meet the first band of breeding 

 seals where none hauled in 1890, existing on grounds not occupied in 

 1890 and as we proceed west, we find 7 bulls and about 250 cows, 

 with one idle bull on this ground abandoned in 1890, and now reoccu- 

 pied in 1913, which is the first example of this kind found thus far on 

 the rookeries. There are no polsecatchie, no 6-year-old bulls; no 

 fighting, and no evidence of dead, or sick, or trampled pups. All 

 look healthv and well. 



Immediately above us, as we go west, is the first noteworthy pod of 

 holluschickie hauled out, consisting chiefly of yearlings; we should 



i In view of tiiat complete elimination, the following is recorded of it in 1872: 



"There is no impression on my mind really more vivid than is the one which was planted there during 

 the afternoon of that July day (1872) when I first made my survey of this ground. Indeed, whenever I 

 pause to think of the subject this great rookery of Novestoshnah rises promptly to my view, and I am 

 fairly rendered voiceless when I try to speak in definition of the spectacle. In the first place this slope 

 from Sea Lion Neck to the summit of Hutchinsons Hill is a long mile, smooth and gradual from the sea 

 to the hill top. The parade ground lying between is also nearly three-quarters of a mile in width, sheer 

 and unbroken. Now, upon that area before my eyes, this day and date of which I have spoken, were the 

 forms of not less than three-fourths of a million of seals. Pause a moment; think of that number; three- 

 fourths of a million seals moving in one solid mass from sleep to frolicsome gambols, backward, forward, 

 over, around, charging and intercharging their heavy squadrons until the whole mind is so confused and 

 charmed by the vastness of mighty hosts that it refuses to analyze any further. Then, too, I remember 

 that the day was one of exceeding beauty for that region. It was a swift alternation overhead of those char- 

 acteristic rain fogs, between the succession of which the sun breaks out with transcendent brilliancy 

 through the misty halos about it. This parade field reflected the light like a mirror, and the seals when 

 they broke apart here and there for a moment, just enough to show its surface, seemed as though they 

 walked upon the water. What a scene to put upon canvas, that amphibian host involved in those alter- 

 nate rainbow lights and blue-gray shadows of the fog." (Monograph Seals Islands of Alaska, 1872-1874; 

 Elliott.) 



Every foot of that ground thus described above is covered with grass to-day, and not a single hauling 

 squad of bachelor seals seen upon it, but one small bunch of less than 4,500. (H. W. E., July 15, 1913.) 



