of the seals during their return in the spring to their breeding grounds, to 

 note the position of the herds from day to day, whether the two sexes 

 and the younger seals all traveled together or in separate herds ; we were 

 also to determine experimentally the relative effectiveness of the differ- 

 ent methods of killing the seal at sea, the percentage of seals lost by 

 each method, the percentage of males, females, or young killed in indis- 

 criminate hunting ; a study was also to be made of their food and food- 

 habits ; in short, attention was to be paid to everything which would 

 throw any light upon the natural history of this valuable animal. 



I joined the Albatross at Port Townsend, Washington, March 27, and 

 four days later we steamed through the Straits of Fuca and began our in- 

 vestigations in the North Pacific. At this time it is not proper that the 

 details or results of the work should be given. Suffice it to say that the 

 investigations and studies of seal-life were continued until September, 

 and that during that time the Albatross was pretty well over the North 

 Pacific and Bering Sea, and made special visits to a number of points on 

 the mainland of Alaska as well as to numerous islands. Among the 

 places visited may be mentioned Sitka, Prince William Sound, Cook's 

 Inlet. Kadiak, various islands of the Aleutian chain, the Commander Islands 

 only eighty miles off the Asiatic coast, and the Pribilof Islands, where are 

 situated all the breeding grounds of our fur-seal, and where I spent two 

 weeks studying the seals upon the rookeries. 



The report upon the entire summer's work of the Albatross concerning 

 the seal is now in the hands of the State Department, and cannot now be 

 made public ; but while carrying on this work opportunities occurred for 

 making collections in other lines of natural history, and I was, of course, 

 not slow in availing myself of them. 



The collection of fishes is quite larue, and contains a number of inter- 

 esting species from Sitka, Unalaska, Atka, Attu and Berinu Island. 



Among these is a very fine series of the Atka mackerel, Pkurogrammus 

 nionoplyrigew, an important food-fish, hitherto but poorly represented in 

 museums. 



An important collection of birds was also made, a part of which collec- 

 tion — the ptarmigan — is treated in another paper. 



Several hundred plants were collected, chiefly at Unalaeka, the Pribilof 

 Islands, and Sitka. 



All these collections are now being studied, and will be reported upon 

 in due time. 



