76 ALASKA. 



At tbe close of my investigation for the season of 1872, the 

 fact became evident that the breeding-seals obeyed implicitly 

 a fine, instinctive laic of distribution, so that the breeding-ground 

 occupied by them was always covered by seals in an exact ratio, 

 greater or less, to the area to be held j that they always covered 

 the ground evenly, never crowding in at one place and scatter- 

 ing at another ; that the seals lay just as thickly together where 

 the rookery was a small one of only a few thousand, as at 

 Naspeel, near the village, as they did where a million of them 

 came together, as at Northeast Point. 



This fact being determined, itis at once plain that just as the 

 hrecfJinggrounds of the fur-seal on these islands expand or contract 

 in area from their present dimensions, so the seals tcill have in- 

 creased or diminished. 



Impressed, therefore, with the necessity and the importance of 

 obtaining the exactarea and position of these breeding-grounds, 

 I surveyed them in 1872-7 3 for that purpose, *and resurveyed 

 them this season of 1871 ; the result has been carefully drawn 

 and plotted out, as presented in the accompanying maps. 



The time for taking these boundaries of the rookeries is 

 during the week of their gr atest expansion, or when they are 

 as full as they are to be for the season, and before the regular 

 system of compact^ even organization brealcs up, the seals then 

 scattering out in pods or clusters, straying far back, the same 

 number covering then twice as much ground in places as they 

 did before, when marshaled on the rookery-ground proper; 

 the breeding-seals remain on the rookery perfectly quiet and 

 en masse for a week or ten days during the period of greatest 

 expansion, which is between the 10th and 20th of July, giving 

 ample time for the agent to correctly note the exact boundaries 

 of the area covered by them ; this step on the part of the Gov- 

 ernment officer puts him in i)ossession every ye.ir of exact data 

 upon which to base a report as to the condition of the seal-life, 

 as compared with the year or years previous. In this way my 

 record of the precise area and position of the fur-seal breeding- 

 grounds on Saint Paul's Ishind in the season of 1872, and that 

 of Saint George in the season of 1873, correctly serves as a 

 definite basis for all time to comeu[)on whicli to found author- 

 itative reports from }ear to year as to any change, increase, or 

 dnninution of the ji;eal-life. It is, therefore, very important that 

 the Government should have an agent in charge of these novel 

 and valuable interests who is capable, by virtue of education 



