th of October had arrived. To add to the delay he was to be paid for
his cargo in seal skins. Now it so happened that there was none of this
kind of peltry at the fort of old Baranoff. It was necessary, therefore,
for Mr. Hunt to proceed to a seal-catching establishment, which
the Russian company had at the island of St. Paul, in the Sea of
Kamtschatka. He accordingly set sail on the 4th of October, after having
spent forty-five days at New Archangel boosing and bargaining with its
roystering commander, and right glad was he to escape from the clutches
of "this old man of the sea."

The Beaver arrived at St. Paul's on the 31st of October; by which time,
according to arrangement, he ought to have been back at Astoria. The
island of St. Paul is in latitude 57deg N., longitude 170deg or 171deg
W. Its shores, in certain places, and at certain seasons, are covered
with seals, while others are playing about in the water. Of these, the
Russians take only the small ones, from seven to ten months old, and
carefully select the males, giving the females their freedom, that the
breed may not be diminished. The islanders, however, kill the large
ones for provisions, and for skins wherewith to cover their canoes. They
drive them from the shore over the rocks, until within a short distance
of their habitations, where they kill them. By this means, they save
themselves the trouble of carrying the skins and have the flesh at hand.
This is thrown in heaps, and when the season for skinning is over,
they take out the entrails and make one heap of the blubber. This, with
drift-wood, serves for fuel, for the island is entirely destitute of
trees. They make another heap of the flesh, which, with the eggs of
sea-fowls, preserved in oil, an occasional sea-lion, a few ducks in
winter, and some wild roots, compose their food.

Mr. Hunt found several Russians at the island, and one hundred hunters,
natives of Oonalaska, with their families. They lived in cabins that
looked like canoes; being, for the most part formed of the jaw-bone of
a whale, put up as rafters, across which were laid pieces of driftwood
covered over with long grass, the skins of large sea animals, and earth;
so as to be quite comfortable, in despite of the rigors of the climate;
though we are told they had as ancient and fish-like an odor, "as had
the quarters of Jonah, when he lodged within the whale."

In one of these odoriferous mansions, Mr. Hunt occasionally took up his
a