306 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 61, FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Callorhinus ursinus: Northern Fur Seal 



Attu: Hla-koo-yach 



Laku'dax (Jochelson) 

 Aleut (dialect?) : Lakukh (Geoghegan) 

 Russian: Kot (Steller) 



The fur seal migrates to and from the Pribilof Islands by way 

 of various passes throughout the Aleutian chain, and, at such 

 times, they may be found, well offshore, south of Alaska Penin- 

 sula. 



In 1925, I was told of some unusual overland movements of 

 these seals near the western end of Alaska Peninsula. At that 

 time, Nick Kristensen, a local trapper at False Pass, stated that 

 fur seals in fall migration had been observed going up Nelson 

 Lagoon, then crossing overland to the Pacific. Stevenson, a reli- 

 able observer, related that several people had reported fur seals 

 going overland from the Bering Sea side, across the narrow 

 strip into Morzhovoi Bay, and that they had crossed the sandspit 

 at St. Catherine Cove as well as the sandspit at Village Cove 

 on the opposite mainland. 



In regard to overland movements of seals, it is interesting to 

 recall Bailey's notation of a report of an Eskimo at Cape Prince 

 of Wales to the effect that spotted seals and ribbon seals had 

 migrated overland out of lagoons to reach open water to the south, 

 because of ice conditions in the lagoons. In this instance, they 

 crossed high country, and traveled several miles a day. 



There appeared to be a general understanding among the Aleuts 

 that fur seals hauled out on Buldir Island in the past, and some 

 of the natives insisted that they bred there. These stories came 

 from natives of Attu as well as Atka. In 1937, Bill Dirks, a 

 brother of the chief of Atka Village, insisted that fur seals were 

 on Buldir. He told me that he had landed there years ago and 

 had killed some for their furs. He was confident that these seals 

 would still be hauling out on Buldir. 



At this point, it is of interest to quote a short note from 

 Scheffer, who wrote under date of January 28, 1942, that — 



In a collection of notes bequeathed to us by G. Dallas Hanna there appears 

 a card with the following statement: "August 1 [1902] — Judge and Lembkey 

 shown a pup fur seal taken by the officers of the Manning this summer on 

 Bowldir Island." The statement was attributed to the official log of St. Paul 

 Island, Alaska. 



In American Field (1902, vol. 53, p. 198), there is a report of 

 "recent news" from Washington, D. C, to the effect that Captain 

 Charles H. McLellan, commanding the U. S. Revenue Cutter 



