. Seal and salmon fisheries and general resources of Alaska. to the eastward and trends southward down tothe water from the abrupt walls bordering on the sea on the west, overa parade plateau as smooth as the floor of a ball-room, 2,000 feet inlength, from 500 to 1,000 feet in width, over which multitudes ofhoUuschickie are filing in long strings or deploying in vast platoons,hundreds abreast, in an unceasing march and countermarch. Thebreath which rises into the cold air from a hundred thousand hot ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 81 throats liangs like clouds of white steam in the gray fog itself; indeed,
. Seal and salmon fisheries and general resources of Alaska. to the eastward and trends southward down tothe water from the abrupt walls bordering on the sea on the west, overa parade plateau as smooth as the floor of a ball-room, 2,000 feet inlength, from 500 to 1,000 feet in width, over which multitudes ofhoUuschickie are filing in long strings or deploying in vast platoons,hundreds abreast, in an unceasing march and countermarch. Thebreath which rises into the cold air from a hundred thousand hot ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 81 throats liangs like clouds of white steam in the gray fog itself; indeed,it may be said to be a seal-fog peculiar to the spot, while the din, theroar, arising over all, defies our description. We notice to our right and to our left the immense solid masses ofthe breeding seals at Gorbotch, and those stretching and trendingaround nearly a mile from our feet, far around to the Reef Pointbelow and opposite the parade ground, with here and there a neutralpassage left open for the holluschickie to go down and come upfrom the The adaptation of this ground of the Reef rookery to the require-ments of the seal is perfect. It so lies that it falls gently from its highZoltoi Bay margin on the west to the sea on the east; and upon itsbroad expanse not a solitary puddle of mud spotting is to be seen,though everything is reeking with moisture, and the fog even dissolvesinto rain as we view the scene. Every trace of vegetation upon thisparade has been obliterated; a few tufts of grass, capping the summitsof those rocky hillocks, indicated on the eastern and middle slope,are the only signs of botanical life which the seals have suffered toremain. A small rock, Seevitchie Kammin, 500 or 600 feet right to theH. Doc. \)-J, pt. 3 6 82 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. southward and out at sea, is also covered with the black and yellowforms of fur seals and sea lions. It is environed by shoal reefs,rough and kelp-grown, which navigators prudently avoid. This rookery of the Ree
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Keywords: ., bookauthor, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectfisheries
