88 BULLETIN OF THE 



skull as that of a new species (Arctocephalus calif ornianus), still asso- 

 ciating with it, however, the skiu of the Gallorhinus ursinus. The 

 skull lie subsequently considered as that of a young A. monteriensis 

 (= Eametupias Stelleri); and referring his A. californianus to that 

 species, he was consequently led into the double error of regarding the 

 Eumetopias Stelleri as a fur seal (as already explained under that 

 species and elsewhere in the present paper), and of excluding the 

 CaUor/n'uus ursinus from the list of fur seals. 



Geographical Distribution. — The northern fur seal seems to be 

 nowhere so numerous at present as at the St. Paul's and St. George's 

 Islands, off the coast of Alaska. They seem to still occur, however, 

 in considerable numbers at a few of the islands to the northward and 

 westward, especially at St. Matthew's and Behring's Islands. They 

 appear never to have landed on the Asiatic shores to any great extent, 

 and I have found no report of their occurrence to the southward of the 

 Kuriles on that coast. On the American side they were formerly 

 numerous from Sitka to the southern coast of California. At Point 

 Conception, Captain Bryant informs me, large numbers were formerly 

 taken, but that they are now rare on the California coast, and are 

 only seen there in the winter season. " The present year,'' he writes 

 me,* " unusually large numbers have been seen off the coasts of 

 Oregon, Washington Territory, and British Columbia, and many .skins 

 have been taken and brought to San Francisco. They were mostly 

 of very young seals, none appearing to be over a year old. Formerly 

 in March and April the natives of Puget Sound took large numbers 

 of pregnant females, but no place- where they have resorted to lured 

 seem to he known off this coast. Neither can I ascertain that any 

 rookeries of the hair seals, or sea lions, are known to exist here ; 

 but I think it probable that both species occupy the rocky ledges off 

 the shore, which are rarely visited by boats." 



The northern fur seals seem to require a moderately cool and hu- 

 mid climate, since they do not readily bear the heat of the sun. These 

 condition- apparently existing in an eminent degree at the Pribyloff 

 Islands, these islands, as Captain Bryant remarks beyond, are eminently 

 suited to the wants of these animal-, which, according to his computa- 

 tion, resort there in summer to the number of more than a million. 



* Under date of Jum i i. 1870, from the United States revenue cutter " Lincoln," en 

 route fur the Seal Islands of Alaska. 



