Saint Paul Island
Largest of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, Alaska. It is the home beach of Kotick in ‘The White Seal’ in The Jungle Book, from Novastoshnah to the killing-grounds.
At a glance
| Source | Author | Role | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Jungle Book | Rudyard Kipling | setting | Kotick’s home beach in ‘The White Seal’, and the killing-grounds he flees. |
The Jungle Book — Rudyard Kipling (1894)
Source: Original · Readwise highlight
All these things happened several years ago at a place called Novastoshnah, or North East Point, on the Island of St. Paul, away and away in the Bering Sea.
- Role: setting
- In the book: ‘The White Seal’ opens on the crowded beach at Novastoshnah, where Sea Catch fights for his place and the white seal Kotick is born. Kotick follows the sealers as they drive bachelor seals past Sea Lion’s Neck and Webster House to the Salt House, where they are clubbed and skinned, and he flees to the sea. He swims to the walrus islet to ask Sea Vitch for a safe place, and finally leads ten thousand seals away from the island.
- Why it matters: The real rookery and its killing-grounds are what drive Kotick’s search for a safe beach, the quest that makes the story.