NINTH ANNUAL REPORT. tia 
island less than one mile in length. The following data show 
the yield of skins from Lobos Island during the past three years: 
1902, 12,922; 1903, 10,994; 1904, 8,349. 
It is reported that the Lobos seals are now menaced by pelagic 
sealers, and that a vessel was seized during 1904 by the Govern- 
ment of Uruguay. 
In 1888, when in the Straits of Magellan, the writer found the 
fur-seal herds of that region nearly exterminated by the hunters 
then working among the Fuegian islands. It is doubtful if they 
have had any chance to increase since then. 
Okhotsk Seal.—The history of Robbin Island, in the Okhotsk 
Sea, is especially interesting in this connection. This island is 
about 600 yards in length and less than 100 yards in width, and 
yet incomplete records show that more than 60,000 seals have 
been taken there by raiders since 1870. A remnant of this herd 
has remained to annually repopulate the rookery, which at the 
present time contains little more than 1,000 seals, and is pro- 
tected by the Russian Government. 
The scattered fur-seal rookeries in the chain of volcanic islands 
stretching northward from Japan, known as the Kurils, have 
been destroyed by raiders during recent years. The history of 
the extermination of these seals, as furnished to the writer by 
men who engaged in the slaughter, is exceedingly interesting. 
Notwithstanding the fact that raids were made year after year, 
the scattered remnants of the herds still clung to their old breed- 
ing grounds. The incomplete records at hand show that more 
than 25,000 seals were taken from the Kuril Islands by raiders 
since 1880. These rookeries were visited by the U. S. S. Albatross 
in 1897, and all the rookeries were found to have been wiped out 
with the exception of one, upon which there were about 100 
seals remaining. It is believed that these will be protected by 
Japan, to which country they belong. The seal inhabiting Rob- 
bin Island and the Kuril Archipelago is now known as Callorhinus 
curilensis. 
Pribilof and Commander Seals——The only important strong- 
holds of the diminishing northern fur seals remaining to-day are 
the Pribilof and Commander islands, in Bering Sea. The United 
States and Russian governments, to which these islands belong 
respectively, have for many years endeavored to save from ruin 
the fur-seal fisheries connected with them. The species estab- 
lished on the Commander Islands is Callorhinus ursinus, while 
that breeding on the Pribilofs is Callorhinus alascanus. Although 
these two species breed upon islands lying in the same latitude and 
