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THREE STREETS.

BY H. BOYD CARPENTER.

I.

I SOUGHT the new, unknown to meet, And found a gay and favored street Where fashion walked with flitting feet; And as I watched, a golden gleam

Pierced swiftly through the summer air And darted o'er the human stream;

Then nestled 'midst some dusky hair.
I gazed upon the hair's dark grace,
The tender frame to woman's face,
That pictured all its charms so sweet.
Then as I looked, I met her eyes,
Deep as the blue of southern skies,
And from them glanced a baby smile
My own poor treasure to beguile ;

Through every yein, throughout my frame,
There swept a dry, an ardent flame,
Love's passion!

II.

'Twas in the time of Love's defeat,
I wandered through a busy street
And paced to where four crossways meet;
And as I gazed, the thronging crowd
Pressed onward, without reck or heed,
With hasty feet, too anxious-browed
To cast a glance upon my need.
The chill neglect, the biting blast
That o'er my heart as ice-wind passed,
And turned to bitter all the sweet,
Brought from its frozen realms a gift,
The love of self, a careful thrift
To guard its treasure and to guide
The current of its burning tide
Through every vein, through every pore,
An angry summons at my door!
Ambition!

III.

I wandered for a dim retreat,
I found a quiet moss-grown street,
And trod its length with tired feet;
And as I passed, a door ill-kept

And battered with the strife of years
Unclosed, and forth a figure stept

And met me with a face of tears. A figure, that had beauty's mien, A face, that in a mood serene, Unmarred by grief, had been more sweet

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Or the difficulties which have lately presented themselves for solution with regard to two little-visited regions of the North American continent, that connected with what is usually-if unscientificallytermed the Seal-fisheries is certainly not the least important. We are at issue, as all the world knows, upon the question whether Bering's Sea is, or is not, to be a mare clausum, and all of us have become more or less interested in the subject. Many, whose geographical knowledge of that region is not of the soundest, have doubtless taken down their atlases and, after due consultation, closed them without finding themselves greatly enlightened, wondering still why America, whose present authority over the Seal islands is unquestioned, should be so persistent in her endeavors to exclude all strangers not only from their immediate, but even from their remote vicinity.

We must turn to the science of Zoology for an explanation. Of the value of sealskin as a fur none of us need to be informed; but the life-history of the animal which provides us with it is not so generally known. Some of us-dare I say some even of the sex most often decked with it are perhaps hardly aware that the common seal of our own shores is in this respect valueless. In lieu of the soft down of the fur-seal, this creature is provided with a coat of coarse stiff hair which would be utterly inapplicable to purposes of clothing. We may therefore roughly divide the seals into two groups-those without and those with fur. The former are know as Hair Seals, the latter as the Eared or Fur Seals, and it is with these latter that we have now to do.

The geographical distribution of the various species of fur seal is at the present time of great interest. Long years ago

these creatures inhabited the South Pacific, and South Atlantic in great numbers. The Falklands, indeed, and other islands off the coast of Patagonia swarmed with them. Anthony Pigafetta, the doughty comrade of Magellan in his celebrated voyage, frequently mentions in his journals the abuudance of the lupi marini, and various rocks and islands were given the name of "Re... cife de lobos" and "Yslas de lobos inarinos" by the great navigator. But all this is now ancient history. Here and there, perhaps, a skin or two is secured by whalers or others cruising in the southern oceans and brought to Cape Town or some port in Chili. For all practical purposes, however, these localities may be regarded as non-existent, and their inhabitants as extinct. Nine tenths, if not more, of the sealskins which come into the European market are from the islands of Bering's Sea. Were they only necessities of life the Americans, it must be confessed, could make a very pretty corner" in them. The operation would be greatly facilitated by the animals themselves, which, instead of being generally distributed over a large area, are confined not only to certain islands, but to certain circumscribed spots upon them.

Omitting Robben Island-a small reef off Saghalin from which a few skins only are obtained-the Seal Islands consist of two groups, the Komandorskis and the Prybilovs. The former-Bering and Copper Islands are the westernmost links of the lonely Aleutian chain, and, though rented by the Americans, belong to Russia. The Prybilovs-St. Paul, St. George, and Otter Islands-lie well within Bering's Sea, and are the most valuable, being capable of exporting in good seasons as many as 100,000 pelts. These five islands then are the sole breeding-grounds of the

North Pacific eared seal (Callorhinus ursinus). At various other places stray individuals may doubtless be found, but they are nowhere very numerous. Why so restricted a ground should be chosen it is difficult to explain. There are without doubt other localities where the conditions are identical, but habit, we know, has as much influence over the lower animals as ourselves, and hence it happens that the fur-seal year after year visits the island to which it is accustomed, never moving to fresh ground, and only very rarely to the other islands frequented by its kind.

Into the dreary wastes of Bering's Sea few vessels penetrate; few at least which are not concerned in the chase of the walrus, seal, or whale. Spring and autumn bring with them terrific gales, and in summer dense sea-fogs wrap everything in an impenetrable veil. The coast of the mainland is sometimes clear, enabling the mariner to determine his position; but this is rarely the case with the islands, and here the sense of hearing has to be called into play to avoid disaster. It is not for the surf, however, that the sailor listens, but for the sound of the seals on the "rookeries"- -a dull, hoarse roar which in still weather is audible for some miles.

Notwithstanding difficulties of navigation, to say nothing of the risks of seizure by an American cruiser, a certain number of schooners, usually of small tonnage, fit out annually for these seas. Some are from the ports on the eastern shores of the Pacific, but others come from Japan. Most of them, it would be safe to say, sail under the British flag. Nominally they are in search of walrus, or perhaps the skins of the sea-otter, but in reality ninetenths of them are seal poachers, hanging about so as to run close in to the islands during a fog, or even landing a crew on the rookery if the weather is especially favorable. But this latter is a risky proceeding. Each rookery is excellently guarded, and detection of the offenders is followed by a shower of Winchester bullets. No questions are asked. The poachers know well enough what to expect if they are unfortunate enough to be discovered, and they take their chance. While at Petropaulovsky in Kamschatka in the year 1882, I learned that the crew of a schooner had suffered considerably in an encounter of this kind a short time previous to my arrival. Two men had been

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killed and eight wounded. One of the latter was landed at Petropaulovsky with no less than thirteen bullet-wounds, from which he nevertheless managed in some miraculous manner to recover. pensate for these risks, and for the chances of the loss of their vessel-an occurrence by no means infrequent-it is evident that the owners of these craft must calculate upon obtaining a heavy return upon their outlay.

Before considering the poaching question, however, a knowledge of the history and habits of the creature is necessary. Zoology furnishes us with few objects for study so strange and so full of interest. We have in the fur-seal an animal which spends one half of the year entirely in the water, and the other half almost entirely on land; which herds together in closelypacked crowds of innumerable individuals in a manner unknown in the case of any other mammal; and, finally, which exhibits in its mode of life an organization and method almost as wonderful as that of the ant.

Mr. H. W. Elliott, in his "Report on the Prybilov Group, or Seal Islands of Alaska," published in 1873, was the first to place a full and trustworthy account of the habits of this seal before the scientific world. The animal had been known for years. So far back as the end of the last century the Russian-American Fur Company had settlements upon the Aleutian Islands and obtained numbers of its skins from the natives, but it was some time before the Prybilovskis were discovered by the sailor whose name they bear. Even at the time of his landing-in 1786— traces of former visitors were found. Long before, in 1741, the great navigator Bering, his crew decimated by scurvy and he himself dying from the same disease, reached the Komandorskis, the other group appropriated as a breeding-ground. But it was winter, and though the naturalist Steller, who accompanied him, made his notes of the huge Rhytina, or sea-cow, now extinct, which formed their food, and shot numerous sea-otters, he must have been brought very little, if at all, in contact with the sea-cat as Callorhinus is termed by the natives.

The islands once discovered, it was not likely that their existence would become forgotten. Before very long the Prybilovskis were colonized by a small party of

natives in the service of the Russian Company. The Bering group remained far longer without inhabitants, but in each, almost from the outset, a system of indiscriminate slaughter was instituted. Animals of both sexes and all ages were killed. We learn from Bishop Innocent Veniaminov that more than a hundred thousand skins were thus taken annually upon the islands of St. Paul and St. George. The pelts had accumulated to such an extent in 1803, that no less than eight hundred thousand were lying in the stores, and of these -so badly were they cured and taken care of seven hundred thousand had to be

thrown away. For a long time this waste of life continued without much apparent effect upon the numbers of those that yearly filled the rookeries. Then, steadily and rapidly, the diminution became evident. In 1817 the "take" from the two islands had fallen to sixty thousand, and three years later to fifty thousand. In 1825 we find a return of only 30,100; in 1829 it had sunk to 20,811; and finally, in 1835 -the date at which the "take" appears to have reached its lowest ebb-6580 skins only were obtained.

With the exception of these statistics of Veniaminov, none, or none that I am aware of, exist of the period previous to the American occupation of Alaska. For the two or three years preceding this event a reign of anarchy, or something approaching it, prevailed, and the seals ran a nearer risk of extinction than any that had previously threatened them. This danger luckily passed over, and in 1870 a lease was granted to the Alaska Commercial Company, under whose direction the numbers of the animals were quickly raised, until the rookeries were once more testored to the condition in which they were found by the discoverers of the islands. The fur-seal, indeed, under the present system of management, can hardly be looked upon as other than a domestic animal, and the island upon which it breeds as a stock-farm on a large scale.

It has never been my good fortune to see the rookeries of the Prybilov Islands, which have been so admirably described by Mr. Elliott, but in the course of the cruise of the yacht Marchesa to Kamschatka, in 1882, I visited those of the Komandorskis, landing in Bering Island in Inid September. The little settlement of Nikolsky off which we anchored, though

barren and dreary-looking to a degree, bore evidences of a rather more advanced state of civilization than I had expected. With the Americans have come schools for the children, and neat wooden houses in place of the turf-built cabins formerly constructed by the Aleuts. All the timber needed for this or for any other purpose has to be brought from Kamschatka, for the islands are utterly destitute of trees, and here. as in Greenland and other regions of the far North, the boats, whether large or small, have to be constructed of skins.

The rookeries, of which there are two, are far from the settlement, and are reached by dog sledge both in winter and summer, the level waste of the dreary tûndras affording nearly as good a road in the latter season as the surface of the snow. Mr. Elliott describes the Prybilovskis as volcanic, but no evidences of a like origin struck me while crossing Bering Island. The land, desolate and barren beyond words, presented itself as a series of marshy terraces, upheaved by discontinuous elevation from the sea-level. Mile after mile of this monotonons and lonely scenery is passed-rendered yet more weird by the gloomy skies characteristic of the region-before the little huts of the Cossacks and Aleuts who form the armed guard of the rookery appear in sight. Then the traveller gets out of his sledge and in another minute finds himself looking at one of the most astonishing sights that the world affords.

Before him, along the seashore, extending, as it seems, for an interminable distance, lies tance, lies a densely packed and ceaselessly-moving crowd of animals, reminding him of some vast collection of human beings. The constant heaving motion which passes in wares over its surface recalls unpleasantly the appearance of a piece of carrion when swarming with maggots, and a dull hoarse roar, whose evenlyblended volume of sound is from time to time broken by the louder bellow of some old bull or the high-pitched ba-a of a pup hard by, greets the ear from tens of thousands of throats. Ceaseless activity is the leading feature of the scene. Closelypacked as are the multitudes of creatures, the mass of life is intersected here and there by paths where numbers of the "bachelors" are passing to and from the sea. In all directions are to be noticed

the bulls, each guarding his harem of wives in a space the size of a small room. The small black pups are sleeping by the side of their mothers, or joyously diving and plunging with their fellows in the surf. The variety and oddity of the attitudes assumed astonishes and amuses the spectator. Here is a pup curled up head to tail, like a dog; there another slowly fanning itself with its hind flipper. Others carry the flippers curled over the back like a tail, and in some again the head is thrown up in the oddest conceivable manner, as if their attention was solely concentrated upon a careful examination of the heavens. Such is a rookery-a swarm of perhaps a couple of hundred thousand restless aniinals, fighting, playing, scratching, fanning, bathing, and making love, and all to the accompaniment of a continuous concert of nearly as many voices, which can be compared to nothing so fitly as the noise which greets the ear at the finish" on the Derby day.

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The spectator, confused by the strangeness and interest of the sight, may remain for some little time without discovering that there is any definite arrangement in the apparent disorder before him. definite arrangement, however, exists, as might be expected, for most large communities in the animal world are ruled by some system. In this case it is based upon the curious fact that the young male seals are not permitted by their elders to enter the breeding-grounds until they are five years old, although they are actually adult before that time. The rookery is thus divided into districts with sharplydefined boundaries. Most important of all is that set apart as the breeding ground, the locality chosen being nearest the sea, and of such a nature as best suits the animals' taste. Flat, low-lying rocks and coarse beach seem to constitute the favorite ground, while sand is eschewed, according to the sealers, from its tendency to irritate the eyes. In close proximity to this ground, either at the sides or at the back, the holluschicki or bachelors establish themselves, in company with the young females of one and two years old. The seals of each district confine themselves to its limits. The bulls on the breeding-ground never wander from their posts, and the cows and pups only move to and from the sea. Should any daring holluschack venture into the married

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quarters" he would probably not come out alive, although, as I have already stated, permission to pass through by certain paths is always afforded him in the case where the holluschicki ground is in rear. addition to these two grounds there is usually another-a species of hospital which serves as a temporary refuge for the sick, or for the many who have been injured by fighting and other causes.

The foregoing rough sketch of the aspect and plan of a seal-rookery is necessary for the proper comprehension of the method by which it is peopled. Throughout the long and dreary winter the islands have either been frozen-in completely, or at least surrounded with heavy ice-pack. The shores are deserted. Of the tensnay, hundreds of thousands of seals that swarmed there in the summer, not one is to be seen. All have gone south, and, threading the dangerous barrier of the Aleutian Islands, where their enemy, man, is forever on the watch for them should they be rash enough to "haul up, "' have reached the warmer waters of the Pacific. But with the end of April comes a change. The rise of temperature, slight as it is, has not been without its effect upon the ice. Round the shores of the islands it has loosened. A week more, perhaps, and it has left them free.

We may now look for the first seal. Winter, it is true, has not yet given place to summer, and the snow has not changed to fog, but the animal is not one to be daunted by cold. The bulls are the first to make their appearance, the old and strong generally preceding their younger brethren, and these pioneers often remain for some time without addition to their numbers. But with the advent of the fogs the rest land in thousands, and at the end of May in the Prybilovskis, and perhaps a few days earlier in the Bering group, all-to use the technical term always employedhave "hauled up."

It must not be supposed that all this has taken place either rapidly or quietly. Far from this being the case, the rookery has from the very first been the scene of ceaseless fighting-of fighting so fierce as frequently to result in the death of the combatants. The bull-seal on first landing is like a gold-miner on a new reef, and instantly busies himself in marking out the best claim" that offers. He establishes himself upon a small area of ground a few

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