42 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



old enough to be taken for tlieir skins; G out of 100 thus marked have 

 been taken, 2 on the island of St. George and 4 on the island of St. 

 Paul, and none of these were found on the same rookery where they 

 were marked. This would go to prove that they are not governed by 

 any special ii),stinct to return to the exact place of their birth. This 

 also furnishes some evidence of the percentage of seals that live to 

 grow up. There yet exists but little information of their haunts or 

 habits while absent from the islands. That they have numerous and 

 powerful enemies is apparent by the great disproportion between the 

 number that leave the islands at 4 months old and those that return 

 again at 1 year of age. During the fall months, while the young seals 

 are leaving the islands, schools of a small species of the whale (known 

 among whalemen as the killer, from its sometimes attacking and killing 

 the right whale) are seen in the vicinity of the islands, often appar- 

 ently chasing the seals, and in one instance, while so doing, one ran 

 into shoal water, was killed, and two seals were found in its stomach. 

 From the most careful observation, extending over five seasons of seal- 

 ing, I can not estimate the number of young seals that return the first 

 year after birth to be over 30 per cent of the product, and that were 

 no seals taken for their skins not over 10 or 12 per cent would live to 

 the age of 5 years. Thus it is seen that the older the class of seals 

 taken for their skins, the smaller the supply from which to take them. 

 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 carefully noting the boundaries from 

 year to year an approximate estimate can be made of the ratio of 

 increase by the addition of the young females maturing annually. 

 These as compared with their area in 1870 now show an expausi(m 

 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 oppor- 

 tunities to supersede the weak and wounded while fighting for the pos- 

 session 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 fall supply. 



The classes driven for their skins during the sealing season are too 

 often disturbed to afford opportunity for estimating their numbers. 

 But after the sealing is all done, and the full quota taken for the year, 

 we know what remains as a future supply. In a few days they settle 

 quietly on their resting places and can then be fairly estimated. On 

 St. Paul Island there is evidence of a steady increase that exceeds the 

 demand to fill the quota for that island, while on St. George, as before 

 stated, the supply falls short of the number necessary to furnish large- 

 sized skins. All other conditions appear to be the same on St. George 

 as on St. Paul, the females annually increasing in numbers, showing it 

 to be only necessary to reduce the number of males taken for their 

 skins to afford the necessary complement for breeding purposes. Thus 

 maybe summed up the general condition of the fur seals at the seal 

 islands, after three years' practical application of the present estab- 

 lished system for their management. The number of breeding females 

 has increased 15 i)er cent, while 100,000 males have been taken annually 

 for their skins, and there is still left a surplus of males required for 

 breeding i)urposes. 



The general affairs of the natives have been administered by chiefs 

 of their own selection and in accordance with their former customs. 



