States in connection with the official report that indications of oil have been found in the arctic coastalplain region. In February, 1923, 35,000 square miles of the western part of the supposed oil-bearing region were withdrawn from entry as Naval Petroleum Reserve, No. 4. The Executive order states: "Said lands to be reserved for six years, for classification, examination, and the preparation of plans for development. The reservation hereby established shall be for oil and gas only." In April, 1923, the Navy Department made a grant of money to the Geological Survey for an investigation, which is being made now (1924).

It is interesting to note that in Canada the most northerly producing oil well is in the Fort Norman region, 64° N., in the valley of the Mackenzie. This well in 1921 was producing about 60 barrels a day.

Oil Prospects on Alaska Peninsula

The most promising of the oil districts, as far as is shown by surveys to 1923, is the Cold Bay-Chignik District, on the east coast of the Alaska Peninsula, southwest of Kodiak Island. This region was explored during the oil excitement of 1902-1904. Four wells were then drilled, of varying depths. Some paraffin-saturated beds were penetrated and a little oil found, but the wells were not commercially productive. Exploitation in this district was made under disadvantages of lack of fuel, bad climate, poor harbors, and irregular transportation.

Seepages exist at Oil Creek-where about half a

barrel of oil exudes daily-on Rex Creek, Bear Creek, Salmon Creek, and at Pearl Creek Dome in the drainage area of Ugashik. Many other cases are reported by prospectors. Active operations are in progress in the Pearl Dome region by two large corporations. The Associated Oil Company suspended work in 1923 after sinking two wells, about 500 and 950 feet deep, but renewed work in 1924; at last accounts a depth of 2,170 feet had been reached. The Standard Oil Company of California is said to have reached a depth of 1,400 feet in March, 1924. Although drilling has been necessary to a greater depth than was originally planned, yet such showings of oil have been discovered as encourage the two companies to test the structure thoroughly.

It is reasonably hoped from the geological surveys and investigations, in Naval Petroleum Reserve, No. 4, that petroleum beds of value will be found on the arctic littoral, in the region of Point Barrow. This important field-work was under Philip S. Smith, U. S. Geological Survey, the fieldwork being done by three parties. Two parties went overland during the winter of 1923-1924, via Seward, Nenana, Tanana, Allakabet, and the Alatna River. Nearly 20,000 square miles of the arctic watershed were geologically surveyed and mapped, covering generally an unknown region. The surveys of the parties confirmed the report of the expedition of 1923, which discovered oil seepages on the coastal regions then visited. Laboratory stud

ies are being made of the material gathered, and while the experts are unwilling to express their opinion of the regions as oil-bearing in quantities, yet the outlook is thought to be favorable.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-U. S. Geological Survey Publications. Brooks: Annual Reports on Alaskan Minerals. Martin: Petroleum in Alaska, Bulletin 719. Capps: Cold Bay District, Bulletin 739. Smith & Baker: Cold Bay-Chignik District, Bulletin 755.

CHAPTER XIV

FUR-SEAL FISHERIES

ENWRAPPED in constant summer sea mists, which concealed them almost absolutely from chance observation, the breeding grounds of the Alaskan furseal were finally discovered by a patient and persistent fur-hunter, Gerassim Pribilof, in 1786, after whom the group of four islands is named. The principal islands, St. George and St. Paul, are 30 miles apart, and near by are the lesser islet of Otter and the waterless ledges of Walrus. St. Paul has an area of some 35 square miles, its highest elevation is 600 feet, and the population numbers about 300; St. George has an area of 27 square miles, its elevation is 930 feet, and the population about 100; uninhabited Otter Islet has an area of about 4 miles, while the flat-topped Walrus reef scarcely measures tenth of a square mile.

The group is about equidistant, 200 miles, from Unalaska to the south, St. Matthew to the north, and the Alaskan mainland to the east. This isolation, the character of the frequented beaches, and the humidity of its almost sunless climate, are elements that have done much to conserve these immense herds of fur-seal as a limitless source of wealth, until the introduction of the exterminating pelagic

or open-sea hunting, which presents another example of reckless commercial exploitation that is utterly regardless of the welfare of future generations.

Practically the Pribilofs have two seasons only, cool, rainy, and foggy summers from May to October, and dry, cold, and stormy winters, with very high winds, from November to April.

A few creeping willows are the only trees, but here and there shrubs furnish forth black currants and red salmon berries in good seasons. With difficulty lettuce, radishes, and turnips are raised, while mushrooms grow in abundance. In addition, rank grasses, beautiful flowers, delicate mosses, and luxuriant ferns make much of the landscape beautiful during the short summer season. Of animal life there are foxes -blue and white. The lemming is found on St. George. Reindeer, introduced in 1911, now number several hundred.

Aside from the fur-seal, the birds of the Pribilofs are of the greatest interest. There are two great bird rookeries-on the face of the bluffs of St. George and on the table-topped Walrus ledge.

"The latter place," says Eliott, "affords within the smallest area the greatest variety of nesting and breeding birds, for here the 'arrie,' many gulls, cormorants, sea-parrots, and auks come in countless numbers. . . Hundreds of thousands of these birds are thus engaged [in hatching eggs], roosting stacked up together as tight as so many sardines in a box, as compactly as they can be stowed, each and all uttering an incessant, muffled, hoarse, grunting sound.