REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 45 



artesian well on St. Paul Island were again unsuccessful. Work on 

 laying out the water system in St. Paul village was continued, and 

 if a supply of artesian water is not secured a series of shallow wells , 

 will be utilized or water piped from a pond at some distance from 

 the village. The by-products plant was operated on St. Paul Island. 



Transportation of supplies from the States to the Pribilof Islands 

 was accomplished chiefly by the naval radio tender JSafurn^ but 

 cargoes were also sent on the commercial vessels Oregon, BrookdaJe, 

 and ApoUo. Many courtesies in the transportation of passengers 

 and small lots of supplies were also extended by the vessels of the 

 Coast Guard. 



The bureau's vessel Eider has rendered invaluable service during the 

 3^ear in the transportation of supplies, passengers, and mail between 

 the Pribilofs and I'^nalaska, eight trips having been made. In addi- 

 tion the vessel went to Kodiak in September for extensive overhaul- 

 ing, returning to Unalaska in December. Three trips were also 

 made to other islands in the Aleutian group to secure laborers for 

 sealing work and to return them to their homes. 



SEAL HERD. 



The 1921 census of the seal herd, taken as of date of August 10, 

 mdicatecT 5^137^3 animals of all ages, an increase of 28,7^ over 1920. _2*. 

 The tentative figures for the census of 1922 gave GO-4,971 animals on 

 the same date, an increase of about 23,5^8r The number of pups .^ i^ 

 born in 1922 was 185,914. The seals killecTTrom one census date to 

 the next are not included in these figures. The 1922 enumeration 

 Avas made by Edward C. Johnston, who also made the counts in the 

 l^receding year. 



In 1921 two runways and towers were constructed to facilitate 

 counting of seals, with such good results that in 1922 instructions 

 were given for the construction of nine on St. Paul Island and one 

 on St. George. Additional concrete markers were placed on the 

 rookeries to separate the areas to be counted from the different tri- 

 pods. Efforts were made to make as complete a pup count as pos- 

 sible in 1922, an undertaking that is becoming practically impossible 

 because of the number of animals in the herd and the extent of 

 ground covered by the rookeries. 



The number of cows per harem in 1921 was 45 ; in 1922 the average 

 was 52.19. 



The matter of methods of taking the seal census and determining 

 quotas of animals that may properly be killed for their skins has 

 been receiving most careful consideration by the bureau. In line 

 with the effort to secure all available information in regard to the 

 life history of the fur seals, a party headed by the Assistant Secretary 

 of Commerce is making a trip to the Pribilof Islands and other seal 

 islands of the North Pacific Ocean in the summer of 1922 and will 

 make careful studies of the herds at each locality. 



Representatives of the bureau have authenticated 525 sealskins 

 legally taken by Indians in the vicinity of Sitka, Alaska, during the 

 spring migration of 1922. Indians also took 1,107 fur-seal skins off 

 the coast of Washington, w^hich were authenticated by the superin- 

 tendent of the Neah Bay Indian Reservation under authorization 



