82 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



which they occupied at any time past. Mr. Elliott's own maps show, when compared 

 with present conditions, that no such reduction has occurred. His average width of 

 150 feet for these rookeries proves the same thing. With such figures nothing can be 

 done. Mr. Elliott must have been wholly devoid of mathematical sense or else must 

 have failed to appreciate what his figures really meant. No other hypothesis will 

 account for them. 



A MEASURE OF ELLIOTT'S OVERESTIMATE. 



It happens that in the log of St. Paul are two references to these rookeries which 

 throw light on their early condition and help us to penetrate the haze of exaggeration 

 which Mr. Elliott has thrown about them. 



Under date of May 24, 1880, Mr. J. W. Beaman, then agent on St. Paul, records 

 in the log 1 of that island that he made "an inspection of Kitovi and Ltikanin rook- 

 eries; 111' bulls were counted on Kitovi and 142 on Lukanin, with a possible error in 

 the count of 25 to 50." 



On the 24th of May by no means all of the bulls were in place, but a reasonable 

 proportion of them may be supposed to have been. Mr. Elliott tells us himself that 

 all the bulls were located by the 1st of June. This, however, the observations of the 

 season of 1897 disprove. A count of North rookery of St. George on June 7 gave 180 

 bulls, where about 200 harems existed in 1896 and where 196 were found a month later 

 in 1897. Even on the 12th of June a count of bulls on Kitovi rookery gave only 156, 

 where 182 harems had been in 1896 and where later, in 1897, 179 harems were found. 



THE COUNT OF MR. BEAMAN. 



These recent counts justify us in assuming that a large proportion at least of the 

 bulls were on the ground by the 24th of May, and although we can not say just what 

 proportion the bulls counted by Mr. Beaman bore to the whole number on this rookery 

 for the season of 1880, we may rest assured that had there been any such number as 

 10.000, or even 5,000, taking the average harem, which recent observations show to be 

 correct, there would have been at least between 1,000 and 2,000 of them in place on 

 that date. 



Referring again to the log, we find that in 1879. the preceding season, bulls began 

 to arrive on Lukauin rookery on May 2, and on May 17 there were 60 of them. This 

 number is not greatly out of proportion to the 142 found a week later the following 

 season., and argues still more strongly against the supposition that bulls by the 

 thousand would occupy that rookery in June. 



CAPTAIN BRYANT'S NOTE. 



In this connection another note in the log of St. Paul Island has significance. In 

 the fall of the year 1876 difficulty was experienced in securing the normal quota of 

 pup seals for food. Captain Bryant, commenting on this, says: "Ordinarily Kitovi 

 rookery alone would have supplied the necessary pups" 2 four or five thousand. As 

 only males were killed, and as a liberal allowance must be made on account of the 

 swimming of the pups for the impossibility of reaching all the males, the inference 



1 Extracts from the log of St. Paul, Pt. II, date of May 24, 1880. 

 -Ibid., date of November 23, 1876. 



