SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 141 
noticed from the deck the boats may be cruising over barren ground. 
As a rule, however, the number observed from the vessel is smali as 
compared with the number sighted from the boats. A vessel while jog- 
ging will naturally frighten a great many which lie in her path; the 
flapping of the canvas and the creaking and slatting of the booms 
arouse the sleepers long before they can be seen, and give them ample 
time to escape. In the early days of pelagic sealing the boats used to 
be stationed at different distances and in different directions from the 
vessel, and would drift, waiting for seals to come near. This method, 
however, proving unremunerative, it was given up, and the hunters 
began to cruise, which custom they have continued to follow ever since. 
MANNER OF COUNTING THE SEXES. 
Considerable controversy has arisen from the accounts rendered by 
sealing captains regarding the proportion of male and female seals 
taken in the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. Previous to the 
time when sealing vessels were required to enter the number of each 
sex taken in their official logs little thought was given to this question, 
and it was always claimed that the two sexes occurred in about equal 
numbers. All sealers knew which sex predominated, but clung to their 
original story, and there was no one who could controvert their asser- 
tions, although there was every reason to doubt them. An order from 
the United States Treasury Department requiring the catch of all 
American sealers to be examined on their arrival in port was the 
means of throwing considerable light on the subject, and the informa- 
tion gained from this source fully established the fact of the great 
preponderance of females. 
It has generally been supposed by most sealers, and the view is still 
entertained by many, that if it were known that a greater number of 
females than males were taken it would greatly affect and possibly 
restrict their privileges when the time came for a readjustment of 
pelagic regulations. The fact has generally been lost sight of that the 
condition of the rookeries at the end of five years will have the most 
weight in deciding that matter. 
That pelagic sealers should pay little attention to the sexes of the 
seals taken was but natural, as they had no object in determining which 
sex predominated, the thought uppermost in their minds being to cap- 
ture as many seals as possible. 
_ No check is placed upon the official logs of the Canadian sealers by 
the custom-house officials at Victoria, who accept such records as 
authentic. If the skins landed at Victoria were subjected to the same 
rigid examination as those landed in United States ports, little or no 
ditference would be found in the proportion of each sex represented in 
the catch by the vessels of the two countries. It seems strange that 
on several occasions when American and Canadian sealers have hunted 
on the same ground and in close proximity to each other, the catch of 
the former has always been composed largely of females and the latter 
of males. There are days when more males than females are taken, 
but such times are not frequent. It is only fair, however, to state that 
a number of both American and Canadian sealing captains have 
admitted the truth to the writer, and all United States hunters with 
whom he has conversed admit that the majority of seals captured off 
Japan and around the Commander Islauds are females. 
During the season of 1894 the schooner Louis Olsen kept an account 
of the seals taken off the coast of Japan, and it was found that out of 
1,600 two-thirds were females. In 1895 the schooner Brenda obtained 
