Evening star., 1901-02-23
THE SEAL AT HOME
How He Lives at His Favorite Sum-
mer Resort
RIGID RULES OF FAMILY LIFE
Puppies Are Playful Little Fellows
and Quite Tame.
VISIT TO A ROOKIE r Y

Written for The Evening Star by W. ]. hampton.
Nobody can go to the Pribylof Islands.
the home of the fur seal except on a gov
ernment ship or on the one steamer of the
company that, so to speak. runs the seal
farm. That ship goes to take supplies and
bring away the skins; the government ships
revenue cutters-come and go they
please. Except the seals there is nothing
of interest on the islands. Treeless, bleak,
rocky lands rising out of an ice-chilled
ocean, they are surely as uninviting as any
part of the known earth. But the seals
love them, and so they are priceless pos
sessions in the commercial world.
The two islands of ST. Paul and st.
George. which compose the group, lie about
30 miles northeast of Dutch Harbor, the
chief port and coaling station of the Alas
kan peninsula. St. Paul, the larger, lies
about forty miles to the west and north OF
st. George and much the larger number OF
seals are found there. 1t is about sixteen
by twenty-five miles, while St. George is
only about six by nine. Just how many
seals are on the islands in the season cam
not be definitely arrived at. but possibly
10000. which compared with the o,op,rD
that Were estimated to have been there before
sealskin became such fashionable fabric
for feminine apparel is small enough. There
were millions of seals on these Islands when
this government was negotiating with Rus
sia for the purchase of Alaska which in
cluded them but they were never mention
ed In the valuable assets of the property.
They were not counted simply because at
that time they were not held TO be of any
special value. But what a gold mine they
proved to be to the first commercial COM
pany that put them on the market!
Lonesome Place.
St. George at first sight isn't bad island
to look at on one of the rare DAYS of sun
shine that visit it, and when first saw
its green hills from the deck of the revenue
cutter Mccullough, it was quite easy to
imagine it a garden spot. Not tree grows
on it, however, and what we thought was
soft green grass was chiefly coarse moss.
We skirted the island around to the little
village of St. George, where six white peo-
pie and hundred Aleuts live in small
frame houses, getting their spiritual sup
plies from one Greek church and their ply
sicdl from the company store. Anchoring
mile or more from shore for lack of har
Dor. we landed on boats. The only white
woman on the island was the wife of Major
Clark, the government agent, and as she
was to see no visitors from October until
the following June, as ships only come IN
summer time, it was fair to suppose she
was not anticipating a very brilliant social
season.
Accompanied by Mr.. Jett deputy agent,
We went along the shore for about a mile
until we came to the rocks where the seals
make their home. These seal grounds are
called rOOkeries and to further complicate
the use of terms. a male seal IS called
bull, a female a cow, and little one pup
py seal. a combination of birds and bovlnes
and CANNES for which the language MAX
ers ought to be called to account. We
could hear a good deal of a racket as
approached the roOkery under the cliff,
sounding something like the barking of
dogs and the believing of cattle and the
grunting of pigs, but We were not prepared