ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 85 



ouf year; but should two successive years of decrease follow, it will be different 

 This decrease is the sauic on the rookeries where no seals have been takeu siucel86S 

 as those that have been worked continuously. Whatever may be the cause of this 

 decrease, I am sure it must be looked for outside of the islands, a period of the year 

 in Avhich we have little or no positive knowledge of their habits. Sufficient search 

 has been made for their winter abodes, with a view to taking their skins, to prove 

 they do not laud in any considerable numbers on any known land. They begin to 

 leave the islands early in October, and by the middle of December have all left, and 

 none are seen again until April or May. A few hundred, mostly young pups, are 

 taken by the Indians around Sitka, 1,200 miles east of the islands, during the month 

 of December, and again in March, on their way returning to the islands, and in Feb- 

 ruary off the coast of British Columbia, but in such small numbers as to make no 

 appreciable difference to the immense number that visit the islands annually. This 

 is about all that is known positively of their winter habits. It is evident that 

 sharks or other voracious fish prey on the young pups while in the water, from the 

 fact that of more than a million pups annually leaving the islands not one-third 

 return to them in spring. 



Ill the coucluding sentence of this extract, Mr. Bryant makes a state- 

 ment that is merely a matter of conjecture on his part; it is just as 

 near the trutli to say that half of the million pups born this year 

 return next. He nor no one else would be justified in making either of 

 these statements so positive, for the data does not exist. 



[Report dated September 5, 1872.] 



The present season the bcachmasters or breeding-bulls have landed in excellent 

 health and condition, and in greater numbers, occupying much larger grounds than 

 ever before. The females also come in sufficiently increased numbers to occupy all 

 the grounds thus mapped out, and the number of young seals produced greatly exceed 

 any former years. The weather, although excessively foggy and disagreeable to the 

 residents of the islands, has been especially favorable to the young seals. It is also 

 observable that a larger number of yearlings or last year's pups than usual have 

 returned to the island the present season. There is now only a deficiency of one 

 class, that of the 4 and 5 year old seals. This is clearly traceable to the following 

 causes : During the season of 1868 there were killed on both islands 220,000 animals 

 for their skins; and in the season of 1869, 85,000 for their skins. At that time the 

 relative value of the sizes or ages of the skins was not understood, and all the skins 

 being paid for at the same price, the natives, who were quick to perceive the differ- 

 ence between taking a small skin and a large one, and carrying it to the salt houses, 

 killed all the yearlings they could; these were the products of 1867 and 1868. These 

 were sent forward, in 1870, to market, and overstocked it with small skins. This 

 created a demand for larger skins, and the Alaska Commercial Company instructed 

 their agents to take all the large skins possible in 1871 ; this was done, and as many 

 4 and 5 year old seals as could be taken. This again fell on the already diminished 

 product of 1867 and 1868. When these were sent to market, they were found too old, 

 and now, the proper medium being ascertained, the seals will be selected accordingly. 



It will be seen by reference to my report of November 30, 1869, containing a 

 detailed description of the habits of these animals, that this class of 4 and ,5 year old 

 seals perform an important service along the shores during the season of incubation; 

 but as there was already existing au excess of old bulls from former years, the detri- 

 ment to the rookeries from the absence of this class, growing out of the excessive 

 killing of 1868, can work no serious injury to the rookeries for this two years, and at 

 that time they will be supplied from the growing seals. Under the present system 

 the rookeries show a steady increase that warrants the assertion that by 1874 an 

 addition of 30,000 skins may l)e added to the number now taken annually. 



[Report dated September 30, 1873.] 



The breeding rookeries during the breeding season have a fixed and permanent 

 character. They begin to fill at the water line, and fill in equal numbers in a given 

 space, extending their boundaries no farther than can be so filled, so that by care- 

 fully noting these boundaries from year to year an approximate estimate can be 

 made of the ratio of increase by the addition of the young females maturing annu- 

 ally. These, as compared with their area in 1870, now show an expansion equal to 

 15 per cent in three years, or an annual increase of 5 per cent since the date of the 

 lease. The full-grown males that do not find room on the breeding places gather 

 as near as possible to await for opportunities to supersede the weak and wounded 

 while fighting for the possession of the females. Here the proportion their numbers 

 bear to the necessities for breeding purposes can be readily estimated, and of this 

 class for breeding purposes there is a full supply. The classes driven for their skins 



