THE Kl'It SKAL: FIGURES. .,;; 



in:fiiuin. Tlio skull In' siil)si'(|ii<'iitly considered ;is thai of a young .1. 

 (=Eumetopia8 Xicllcri); and referring his A. fulifurtiiiniiis to that species, hi.- was conscqucnt-ly led 

 into tin 1 double error of regarding the JHumetopias Sti'llcri as a Fur Seal (as already explained under 

 that species and elsewhere in the present paper), and of excluding the Callorliiimx nrxhiiiK IVom I he 

 list of Fnr Seals. To this I called attention in 1870, ami in 1871 Dr. Gray eornrlly referred his A. 

 iHonterivititis and .1. califoniinntts in part (the "skin only")" to Callorlihiun urxhuttt.* 



What may be termed the second or modern epoch in the general history of this species began 

 in 1869, when Captain ('. M. Scnminon published a highly important contribution to its biology,- he 

 describing at considerable length, from personal observation, its habits, distribution, and products, 

 as well as the various methods employed lor its capture. The following year Mr. \V. II. Dall 

 devoted a few pages" to its history, in which he made many important suggestions relative to 

 the sealing business. During the same year I was able to add not only something to its technical 

 history, 1 but also to make public an important communication on its habits kindjy placed at my 

 disposal by Captain Charles Bryant/' government agent in charge of the Fur Seal Islands of 

 Alaska. In 1874, Captain Scannnon republished his above mentioned paper," adding thereto a 

 transcript of Captain Bryant's observations already noted. Almost simultaneously with this 

 appeared Mr. H. W. Elliott's exhaustive Report on the Seal Islands of Alaska, 7 in which the present 

 species properly comes in for a large share of the author's attention. The work is richly 

 illustrated with photographic plates, taken from Mr. Elliott's sketches, about twenty-five of which 

 are devoted to the Fur Seal. The text of this rare and privately distributed work has been since 

 reprinted," with some changes and additions, and has been widely circulated. It contains very 

 little relating to the Fur Seal that is strictly technical, but the general history of its life at the 

 Pribylov Islands is very fully told, while the commercial or economic phase of the subject is treated 

 at length. A few minor notices of this species have since appeared (mostly popular articles in 

 illustrated magazines, chiefly from the pen of Mr. Elliott), but nothing relating to its general history 

 requiring special notice in the present connection, until the publication, in 1881, by the Census 

 Bureau and the Fish Commission, of the two editions of Mr. Elliott's elaborate monograph of 

 the Seal Islands of Alaska, 9 



FIGURES. The first figures of the Northern Sea Bear were given by Steller, in his p;,per already 

 cited. They represent an adult male, in a quite natural attitude, and a female reclining on her back. 

 In respect to details, these. early figures were naturally more or less rude and inaccurate. They 



1 GRAY, J. E. : Supplementary Catalogue of the Seals and Whales, p. 15 ; Hand-List of goals, p. IW. 



2 SCAMMON, C. M., in the Overland Monthly, vol. iii, Nov., 18H9. pp. 393-399. 



3 DALL, WILLIAM II.: Alaska and its Resources, 1870, pp. 492-498. 



'Bulletin of (ho Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, ii, pp. 7:!-89. 



'Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, pp. 89-108. 

 SCAMMON, C. M. : The Marine Mammals of the Northwestern Coast, &o., 1874, pp. 141-10:!. 



7 ELLIOTT, HENRY W.: Report ou the Prybilov Group, or Seal Islands of Alaska, 4to, unpaged, W:t [13*4]. 



"ELLIOTT, HENHYW.: Condition of Allaire in Alaska, 187. r >, pp. 107-151. 



9 1881. ELLIOTT, HEXIIY W. : Department of the Interior. | Tenth Census ol' the United States. | Fraiieis A. 

 Walker, | Superintendent. | | The history and present condition | of the fishery industries. | Prepared under the, 

 direction of Professor S. F. Baird, U. S. Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, by G. Brown Goode, Assistant Direetur, 

 U.S. National Museum. | | The Seal-Islands of Alaska, | by | Henry W. Elliott. | (Seal of Department of the Inte- 

 rior.) | Washington: I Government Printing Office: | 1881. Quarto, pp. 170. Two maps; twenty-nine' plates. 



1881. ELLIOTT, HENIIY W. : U. S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries. [ Spencer F. Baird, Commissioner. | | 17U. 

 | Special Bulletin. | | A Monograph | of the | Seal Islands of Alaska | by | Henry W.Elliott | | Reprinted, with 

 additions, from the Report on Hie Fishery Industries | of the Tenth Census. [Washington: | <;ovcrmnrnl Printing 

 oilier. | \>-'ft\>. Quarto, pp. 176. Two maps; twenty-nine plates. 



These two edit ions differ in Hie fact that in the census edition, pp. 1(1-,' to 10!!, relating to "Tin- K< pnulm -t ion of 



the Fur Seal, Sea Lion, and Walrus," are replaced liy "A Brief Kcvicw of Hie Ollicial Repents ii] Hie Conduct of 



Affairs on the Seal Islands." 



