30 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 
On Zapaduie (St. George Island) a cross marks the extreme western 
end of the rookery. 
It seems advisable to have these artificial landmarks extended to 
some of the other rookeries and located on their respective charts. 
Photographie Station G, on Polavina, was marked F by mistake and 
should be corrected. 
Photographie Station 5, on Northeast Point, was appropriately 
marked. 
CONDITION OF ROOKERIES IN 1895 AS SHOWN BY CHARTS AND 
PHOTOGRAPHS. 
The changes that have taken place in the rookeries since July, 1894, 
are so marked that their depleted condition in July, 1895, is in general 
apparent upon comparison of the charts and photographs covering the 
two seasons. The usual number of seals not having appeared at the 
customary time of commencing the photographic work, the latter was 
purposely delayed in order that the ground might have ample time to 
fill up, the dates at which the photographs were made being mostly a 
week later than in 1894. Even after the slight spreading of the breed- 
ing seals that takes place as the season advances, the grounds were 
not at any time during 1895 occupied by their usual numbers of seals. 
Rookeries, or breeding grounds, strictly speaking, are the tracts within 
the limits of which young seals are brought forth, being perfectly dis- 
tinct areas as contrasted with those over which they spread of their 
own accord somewhat later, The “spreading” which results from the 
swelling of the rookeries by the birth of thousands of young was 
scarcely perceptible during the season of 1895, the limited number of 
adults on the rookeries making it unnecessary for the animals to seat- 
ter to the usual distances from the beaches. Many old breeding males 
occupied their former positions in the rear of the rookeries, but remained 
alone, or with but two or three females during the season, their harems 
having been absorbed by harems nearer the beach and not permitted 
to pass back. Many of the branches of rookeries formerly extending 
well back of the breeding grounds at favorable points where the seals 
lie in masses have this year been absorbed into the main body of breed- 
ing seals. These changes are shown in the photographs of some of the 
rookeries and are represented on the charts. In many narrow rookeries 
stretched along beaches where the number of seals is not great, changes 
caused by a decrease in seal life are not of such a character as to be 
apparent in photographs until actual breaks occur. AJ] such rookeries 
confined to narrow beach slopes are now thinned out to the verge of 
breaking apart in many places. They no longer overlap on to the level 
ground usually found above the slopes, and the surplus of male seals 
derived from their adjacent hauling grounds is no longer of any impor- 
tance. Breaks which occur in rookeries are always carefully noted, as 
they are sure indications of decrease in the seal life of rookeries here- 
tofore continuous. Certain thin sections as observed in 1894 indicated 
breaks likely to follow further decrease in seal life. As a result of the 
heavy loss of female and young seals caused by pelagic sealing in Bering 
Sea in 1894, many of the predicted breaks actually occurred in 1895. 
The destruction of a much larger number of females and young, through 
the operations of the sealing fleet in Bering Sea in 1895, will cause a 
reduction in the class of breeding seals next season, amounting practi- 
cally to the loss of continuity in all the thin rookeries on the islands 
and rendering the business of pelagic sealing unprofitable. 
