142 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



JAPANESE SEALSKINS DELIVERED TO THE UNITED STATES 



In accordance with provisions of the fur-seal treaty of 1911 there 

 were allotted to the United States 210 Japanese fur-seal skins, or 10 

 percent of the number taken by Japan on Robben Island in 1937. 

 These skins were received by the Department's selling agents at St. 

 Louis, Mo., on March 28, 1938. 



SUBSTATION FOR SEA-OTTER PATROL 



In order to provide for the expansion of sea-otter investigations and 

 patrol, a substation was established on Amchitka Island in the western 

 Aleutian Chain during the 1937 season. Workmen from the Pribilof 

 Islands, together with building materials, equipment, and supplies, 

 were carried to the island on the Penguin, sailing from St. Paul Island 

 on July 2. Eight natives at Atka were also employed to assist in 

 unloading cargo and in the erection of buildings. On July 6 work was 

 started on the construction of the Bureau's buildings — a bunkhouse 

 16 by 32 feet for white employees, another 14 by 24 feet for natives, 

 and a storehouse 14 by 32 feet. The Penguin sailed again for the 

 Pribilof s on July 10, leaving two white employees to act as observers 

 and three St. Paul natives and three Atka natives to complete 

 the work on the buildings. The vessel returned for these men in 

 September. 



O. J. Murie, of the Bureau of Biological Survey, head of a party of 

 investigators who started making a survey of the game resources of 

 the Aleutian Islands in 1936, was on Amchitka Island in the 1937 

 season and cooperated with the Bureau of Fisheries employees in their 

 observations of sea otters in that vicinity. 



FUR-SEAL HABITAT GROUP FOR FIELD MUSEUM 



Under a special permit issued by the Secretary of Commerce, a taxi- 

 dermist of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, visited the 

 Pribilof Islands in 1937 and collected material for use in a fur-seal 

 harem exhibit at the museum. Fur-seal specimens obtained on St. 

 Paul Island consisted of 3 large bulls, 5 other large males, 18 pups, and 

 15 cows. The skins were of little or no commercial value, having been 

 taken from animals found dead on the rookeries and from cows that 

 were killed accidentally in the drives. Birds for the habitat group 

 were collected on both St. Paul Island and St. George Island and 

 included 21 specimens of the least auklet, 7 of the crested auklet, 9 

 sandpipers, and at least 1 each of the Pribilof sandpiper, paroquet, 

 tufted puffin, horned puffin, tumstone, snow bunting, squaw duck, 

 goose, hawk, loon, grebe, shearwater, jeiger, eider, fulmar, and gull. 



COMPUTATION OF FUR SEALS, PRIBILOF ISLANDS, 1937 



By Harry J. Christoffers 



The Pribilof Islands fur-seal herd this season showed every outward 

 indication of being in a satisfactory condition. There was a con- 

 siderable expansion of harem areas, as well as an ample supply of 

 breeding bulls of all classes and a comparatively large number of 

 3-year-old males in drives at the end of the season. 



