42 
BULLETIN OP THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
for its employees. Formerly the company’s “sealer” lived in a small framediut just 
east of the salt-house, but this is now used for storing salt in sacks, while the kossak 
occupied a mud-hut, or yurt, a little farther east (pi. 25Z>). 
There has of late years been several distinct yurt or mud-house villages at this 
rookery. The first one was situated just back of the coast escarpment, west of the 
salt-house, and between it and the i>resent driveway, scarcely more than an eighth of a 
uule from the rookery. This was inhabited until 1877. In 1878 Mr. Grebnitski ordered 
the village to be moved back and the new yurts Avere built an eighth of a mile southeast 
of and farther up on the hill than the former. The yurts, or barabras, Avere low and 
small and dark, musty and dirty, and have recently become entirely unfit for use. A 
series of new ones have now been erected and others are still being built immediately 
east of the former site, and these are in every way supplied AAuth “modern imi)rove- 
ments,” inasmuch as they are comparatively large, dry, and provided Avith windoAvs. 
They are built entirely above ground, and constructed of ui>riglits I'ammed into the 
ground and covered on the inside with boards nailed on lengthAvise. The walls and 
roof are then covered Avith a thick layer of sod (pi. IGn). On the Avhole, they are rather 
comfortable and warm, being certainly more suited to the climate and the Avauts of 
the people than the ordinary frame-houses. 
The appended map of this rookery (i)l. 7) is the result of a traverse plane table survey 
made July 9 to 19, 1895, in the intervals between the rain and fog. A base line, exactly 
one-fourth of a statute mile long, Avas carefully measured off on the level ground to the 
west of the salt-house. About 100 angles, from 11 stations, Avere measured. Another 
map of the same rookery Avas made by me in 1882-83, but on a considerably smaller 
scale, by means of an azimuth compass and pediometer. The new and more detailed 
survey confirmed the accuracy of the old map. There has never been jAublished any 
map of this rookery. 
TUB SOUTH KOOKEltY. 
The South Eookery of Bering Island {Foludionnoye lezhhishtche) is now a very 
insignificant affair. As mentioned above, it is the oidy remnant of the countless 
numbers of seals \\duch Stcller saAv pn this side of the island- Situated at 55° 67' 
north latitude, on the Avest coast of the island, halfway between Northwest Cape and 
Cape Manati and nearly 16 miles in a straight line from the village Nikolski, it occupies 
a narroAV, curved beach under the steep bluffs of the coast escarpment, which here rises 
periAcndicularly from 00 to 100 feet high. A beautiful Avaterfall in the next bight to 
the east forms a very conspicuous landmark (pi. 325), and three-fourths of a mile to 
the westward is one of the most perfect natural arches, which I have named Steller’s 
Arch (pi. 275). 
The roolcery heacli is hemmed in both at the west end and the east by projecting 
spurs of the escarpment, and at the corresponding corners long rocky reefs run out 
into the sea, inclosing and iirotecting a shallow bay which, in spite of the oiienness of 
the coast, forms a safe harbor for the pups. The beach itself, hardly 100 feet Avide, 
consists of an outer pebbly and rocky portion with a rather steep incline toward the 
Avater and an inner narrow and level belt covered Avith very tall vegetation, mostly 
Elymm and Ileraclewn. 
The breeding seals occupy part of the pebbly beach, also hauling up on the out- 
lying rocks of the reef. 
