294 ^'^ BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
appeared, and many of the sod huts of the "new village" were in ruins. In their 
place a large frame house had been erected by the Government just back of the old 
village for occupancy by the overseer and other officials, evidently built at a time 
when the rookery was in a moi-e flomishing condition but now plainly showing 
evidence of decay.' ■ As nd sealing was going on at this season, the native population 
was congregated at the Saranna village, nearly 7 miles farther east, busy with 
catching and drying salmon for winter food, and only a guard of a dozen young men 
was located at the rookery village. The salt house, which contained nothing but 
a small quantity of old and discolored salt, was in a very dilapidated condition. 
The floor v/as covered -with mold and slime and had rotted away in places; the- roof: 
was leaking badly.' : ' ' if snirnhf 
The decay of the buildings was as nothing, however, compared with the deso- 
lation presented to view from the salt-house platform overlooking the rookery, from 
which the writer's , first sketch of the teeming masses of seals was made just 40 
years before (July 30, 1882; see plate 20, Asiatic Fur-Seal Islands). At first only 
a few straggling bulls could be discovered on the main rookery and a handful of 
§.eals on the Sivutchi Rocks. Presently, as, the overseer pointed them out, a thin 
line of seals. was observed above the grass to the left. In the beginning some diffi- 
culty was experienced in becoming oriented, as the first things looked for were the 
white "sands" and "parade grounds/,' wlifCre the breeding harems used to be Ijmg 
in thick masses with the characteristic black "band" of seals obliquely across the 
sandy, gently rounded peninsula (fig. 1). To the writer's astonishment it became 
apparent that this entire space, except a very narrow fringe of whitish sand along 
the northern edge, was overgrown with a tall, dense growth of coarse grass (Ely- 
itlus), and that not only was this grand rookery depleted almost beyond belief, 
btit' it hiust have been so for a considerable period for this .gravelly surf ace to have ' 
become so densely overgrown with vegetation. . • 
We descended on the rookery. It was low tide, and we walked out to the large 
rocks directly north of the peninsula without seeing a cow or pup seal, over ground 
where formerly thousands of seals bred and where it would |a;ave,been impossible to 
have walked except in the spring before the seals had arrived or during the sealing 
season when taking part in a drive. Occasionally a roaming bull or half bull, of 
which there seemed to be a great superfluitj', v/ould amble across our path appar- 
eti'tl;y'in seai'feli b¥ cbi^s; By this' tim.e the' wind had iilcreased' alm-ost to a ^ie so 
that it was' 'impossible' to' set u'p a tripod arid eaniera, and a few instantaneous 
exposures with the small kodak ivere the only photographs that could be secured. 
Th6 extent of the arc Covered bj^ the seals was sketched in on the m.ap (fig. 8) * and 
ah atteiript was then rriade to estimate the number of seals present on the rookery. 
The first location of our observation point being found very unsatisfactory 
(fig. 3) ^, we proceeded cautiously to the western edge of the reef and there gained 
a- sorhewhat better view (fig. 4). An attempt was then made to count the bulls, 
ati leasts but the count was quite illusory. It is certain that among the females 
there were many bulls which we could not and did not see. At a rough esti- 
mate, based on the various " counts " by the writer, Captain Lindquist, Mr. 
< The accuracy of this has since been verified from the photographs. 
' This was chiefly because only a few seals could be seen. For comparison with conditions in 1895 and 1897 photographs 
from nearly the same standpoint are added (figs. 5 and 6), 
