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Show S Sir f l" V V Seals on One of the Prlbilof Islands. (Prepared by the National Geographlo Society. Washington, D. C. ) AMERICA'S farthest northwest and Asia's farthest northeast mark the icy region where airplanes of the United States and Soviet Russia have been seeking to find Lieut. Ben Eielson who disappeared dis-appeared while trying to carry aid by air to a marooned ship. The region In which search was made embraces- Bering strait, a portion of the Arctic sea to the north, and Bering sea to the south. While whaling ships pass through these waters at Intervals, much of the region is far from being a frequented fre-quented one. Less than 300 years ago Bering strait had not been crossed by a boat with a civilized nnvlgator in command, but since then, whalers, Arctic explorers, and adventurers have passed through and across the strait. About twenty years after the Pilgrims Pil-grims landed on Plymouth Rock, two Russian expeditions sailed along the western bank of Bering strait without seeing the American side. Later a trading station was stationed on the Russian bank, but It was nearly a century later that Alaska was explored from the west. Rumors were current at the Russian Rus-sian trading staion that there was an Island In the strait, hidden by the fog that envelopes the region, and that America lay to the east. The "Island" proved to be two Islands Is-lands now known as Dioraedes. Today To-day one of the Diomedes belongs to Russia, the other to the United States; for the International boundary line runs between them. They are Inhabited by Eskimos who make their living chiefly as "go betweens" for American and Russian traders. Named for Vitus Bering. Bering strait and Bering sea take their names from Vitus Bering, a Danish navigator who enlisted In the Russian navy in 1703. Peter the Great ordered him to the east coast of Siberia in 1725. He went overland to Okhotsk and then to Kamchatka, where he built a ship for his explorations.. Lie sailed up the Bering seacoast but America was hidden in the fog. On a subsequent sub-sequent voyage, in 1741, he saw the American continent for the first time. On his way back to Siberia, Bering's ship was wrecked on what Is now known as Bering island in the Commander group. Sailors who reached the mainland carried the story of the fur trade possibilities in Alaska and soon Russian trappers trap-pers and traders moved to the new continent. If the international boundary line continued north and south as it does through the strait, half of the Aleutians would belong to Russia. Rus-sia. But at the south end of the strait It veers southwestward, missing miss-ing the western end of the Aleutian Aleu-tian chain by about ir0 miles. The Commander Islands form the only group on the Russian side of the line while the United States acquired the St Lawrence, St. Matthew, Mat-thew, Nunivnk and the Pribilof Islands Is-lands when Seward paid Russia $7,000,000 for the famous "Seward Ice Box," as Alaska was called by the critics of the purchase. Perhaps the most important and best known of the American Islands are the Pribilofs, where the unuea States bureau of fisheries maintains main-tains a sealing station and fox ranch The Pribilofs consists of five islands, lying In the Bering sea, about 200 miles north of the Aleutian chain. St. Pauls and St. Georges islands, the largest and only ones of the group that are Inhabited, In-habited, are each slightly more than 30 square miles In area. The other three are merely Jutting rocks with a combined area no larger than a fair-sized eastern farm. The Islands are bleak and desolate. deso-late. Their barren, volcanic peaks and rocky shores are hostile to vegetal Ion. In the winter they are covered with Ice and snow, and whipped bv the frigid Arctic gales, while during the summer months, that fog that envelops the whole area Is so dense that the sun's rays rarelv touch the earth. As a result the climate is uncomfortable, cold and damp. Toward autumn the wind cloars the atmosphere and here and there grass and mosses make the host of the short togless and Iceless season. Only a few years ago, the Inhabitants of the islands were entirely Isolated from the rest of the world for sis months of the year, hut the radio has changed that condition. Seals on the Pribilofs. When Prlbilof, the Russian navigator, navi-gator, whose name the Islands bear, landed there In 17Si3, after ihree years' search for the breed-ins breed-ins grounds of the seals that frequented fre-quented the north Pacific and Bering seas waters, he found no human life, but millions of seals. He was followed by Russians and later by natives from the Aleutian islands. Russians and a few Americans Amer-icans make up the present population, popu-lation, most of whom are connected with the government sealing and fox-raising Industries. While seals are sometimes known as sea bears, their names peculiarly pecul-iarly follow those of cattle and dogs, and even human beings. The adult male is called a "bull" and the female, a "cow." Instead of referring either to bears or cattle by calling the baby seals "cubs" or "calves," man calls them "pups." The young males fare better by annexing an-nexing a name of human origin bachelors. The more rocky the shore, the more the seals like it during the breeding seasons, for the harems (seal families) forsake the few smooth spots on the islands and establish their rookeries (breeding places) among the broken rocks along the shore, or on the sides of rocky hills. From the rim the rookeries appear to the eye as collections col-lections of black splotches continually con-tinually moving, while to the ear comes a blend of loud grunts and barks. Each of these splotches represents a harem of 50 or 60 cows and, perhaps, twice as many pups, which are protected by a bull. The bachelors are not allowed al-lowed to come near the harems but occupy "hauling grounds," on smooth rocks or sandy beaches, outside the family circles. Sometimes Some-times a bachelor raids a harem and if successful in his fight with the bull, he takes away a cow or two. As cold weather approaches, the cows and newborn pups leave the islands and go south, followed shortly afterward by the bulls. They never touch land until their return to the Pribilofs in the spring. The two to three-months-old pups, who have been subsisting on milk and hardly know how to "navigate," are forced to make their own way without assistance from the rest of the family. As a result, it Is estimated that 50 per cent of them die before the next season. How the Herds Are Protected. The seal herds of the Pribilofs decreased from between 2,500,000 and 4,000,000 when the islands were taken over by the United States in 180S, to 150,000 In 1911. Although the government placed restrictions on killing them on the islands, the loss was largely due to the killing of cows while they swam about In the water in the summer, perhaps seeking squid and fish at the nearest food source, a hundred miles south, or during the winter while in the Pacific. The death of a cow In the winter means the loss of a pup to be born the following summer, while a similar killing in the summer would perhaps per-haps be more disastrous, for the new-born pup left at the rookery would die of starvation and an vfn-born vfn-born pup would also be lost Laws and treaties now protect seals while at sea. Scientific propagation Is showing Its favorable effect upon the herds annually. Only surplus males are killed for their pelts. The best furs are taken from seals under five years old. Those that are to be killed are separated from the j herd, struck on the head with a; large club, and then struck through1 the heart with a knife. After the I killing an expert skinner can re- i move the pelt of a seal in two orj three minutes. i The government also successfully maintains and propogates blue and white foxes on the Pribilofs, which add to the revenue already received from the sealing Industry. Near-; ly 1,000 pelts are shipped to this country annually. Unlike the fox; farms on the Aleutian Islands where : the little animals are Inclosed in : chicken-wire cages, the Prlbilof : packs are allowed to run wild.! They are the most successful packs in the world. J Most of the pelts of both the seals and foxes are auctioned of! t In tlie St Louis fur market Bering sea Is 33 times larger than Lake Michigan. The Gulf of j Mexico could be swallowed up In Its area. If the Bering sea were placed on a map of the United ( States with Its northern-most point , at Chicago, the Aleutian islands. I which form Its southern boundary,! would dot the northern shore of (Tie Gulf of Mexico. In the Seventeenth Seven-teenth and Eighteen; centuries, without modern nnvlpaUng Instruments, Instru-ments, the early eplorA-s sieered their frail ships over the vast sea. frequently iinjorUed by floating lee from the Arcti |