The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-06-10


 Cows, Playful Puppies and UnIucky
 Bach eIors.
 Nobody can go to the Pribylof Isl
 ands the home of the fur seal, except
 on a government ship or on the one
 steamer of the company that runs the
 seal farm That ships goes to take
 supplies and brings away the skins;
 the government ships-reVenue cutters
 --come and go as they please.
 Except the seals there is nothing of
 interest on the islands. Treeless, bleak,
 rocky lands rising out of an iee-chilled
 ocean, they are surely as uninviting as any part of the known earth. But the
 seals love them and so they are price
 less possessions in the commercial
 world.
 The two islands of St. Paul and St.
 George, which compose the group, lie
 about 250 miles northeast of Dutch Harbor, the chief port and coaling sta- tion on the Alaskan peninsula. St. Paul, the larger, lies about forty miles to the west and north of St. George, and much the larger number of seals is found there, It's area is about six teen by twenty-five miles, while St. George is only about six by nine.
 Just how many seals are on the isl ands in the season cannot be definitely arrived at, but possibly 150000, which, compared with the 5,000,000 that were estimated to have been there before sealskin became a fashionable fabric for feminine apparel, are few enough.
 rryI-o NF nlc on these islands when this government was negotiating with Russia for the purchase of Alaska which includes them, but they were never mentioned 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 company that put them on the market!
 St. George at first sight isn't bad island to look at on one of the rare days of sunshine that visit it., and when we first saw it's green hills from the deck of the revenue cutter McCul- loch it was quite easy to imagine it a garden spot. Not atree grows on 1t, 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 people an a hundred Aleuts live in small frame houses, getting their spiritual supplies from one Greek church and their physical from the store. Anchoring a mile or more from shore for lack of a harbor we landed in 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 is fair to suppose she was not expecting a very brilliant social season.
 Accompanied by MT. Jett, deputy agent, we went along the shores for about a mile until we came to the rocks where the seals make their home. These seal grounds are called rookeries and to complicate the use of terms, a male seal is called a bull, female a | 1ow, and a little one a puppy seal. We could hear a good deal of a racket as we approached the rookery under the | tiff, sounding something~like the bark Ing of dogs and the believing of cat | .le and the grunting of pigs, but we were not prepared for the sight that | net our eyes as we looked down on the 'ocks and the sea at the foot of the | ,liffs.
 The rocks were black with little fel- ows; there were great bull seals on nigh points lifting themselves up on heir fiippers and roaring, there were 'ow seals, lowing and the sea was alive with seals of all sizes but the smallest, lnd never one was quiet in lung or imb. The discordant din continues liaht and day from July to November IT later, and in foggy weather is the nly signal for the mariners who are ,erous coast.
 We went down on the rocks to get loser view of the animals and there anne in actual touch with the puppy calls. Those of them that were not laying were cuddled up asleep in the ooks and crannies of the rocks, piled on top of each other. hey slept so soundly that we could troke their fur Unusally they did ot awake until we would pick one up y its tail, or what passes for tail nd then it would wake with a bark nd a great splitting and spluttering omewhat as cat might. It would try ) bite, too, and when it was left loose 'ould go wabbling over the rocks with s companions bouncing around like ubber, and apparently reckless of umps and bruises. A young seal is about eighteen inches r two feet long, not much bigger than puppy and quite black. These young -ers cannot swim, and have so little | esire for water that their mothers ave to push them into the sea to take leir first lesson.
 The older seals, are, as rule, gentle, nd they may be approached within a w hundred feet without disturbing lem. Occasionally an old fellow is gly, and I saw a very large one, pro- f oked by one of the cutter officers, i've chase to him, and with such evil ent purpose of fight that the officer turned his back and ran as est he could over the rocks, the seal : awkwardly after him, and wing him g close race. A COW seal is as vain as a woman : Id she never tires of preening her If. The sight of one of them floating e renely on the waves flaming herself ith her fippers is as funny as it is ! !