114 NEW. YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
are driven inland, entirely away from the rookeries of breeding 
seals, as easily as a band of sheep. The animals are killed, and 
skinned by the natives. The skins are counted by government 
agents, and placed in the salt-houses of the lessees for a month’s 
curing, when they are shipped to London, which has always been 
the world’s fur-seal market. The selecting and killing is accom- 
plished without noise or disturbance, and everything is done de- 
cently and in order. 
The seals arrive at the islands in June; their young are born 
the last days of June and the early part of July. After the young 
are born the female seals go to sea to feed, ranging as far as 
200 miles from the islands, returning at more or less regular 
intervals to nurse their young. It is during their feeding ex- 
cursions that they are taken by sealing vessels in Bering Sea. 
The killing of females at this season is followed by the starvation 
of all nursing young on the breeding grounds, the loss of young 
by starvation corresponding with the number of mother seals 
taken by vessels. 
The different rookery communities are divided up into harems, 
each one jealousy guarded by a large male. The males arrive 
at the islands and fight furiously for the possession of territory. 
The females, arriving soon after the males have established them- 
selves, are divided up among them. The young seals remain with 
their mothers for about a month, not learning to swim until the 
latter part of August. The seal herds remain about the islands 
until late in the fall, when the annual movement into the Pacific 
Ocean takes place. The class of skins obtained under govern- 
ment direction on the Pribilof and Commander islands is of the 
highest quality, the animals selected being three-year-old males 
of nearly uniform size, killed when the fur is in best condition. 
The following statement, unpublished in part, shows the number 
of seals of this class taken on the Pribilof Islands during the 
past five years: 
WOOO fu eae 21,925 LOOM own eone 23,006 
TOO2s. 22,182 19Q03......+-- 19,337 
TOOAS eae ae 13°273 
Pelagic Sealing. —The pelagic, or ocean catch, is obtained at 
sea, in season, and out of season. It consists of young and old, 
male and female, all skins being more or less injured by shooting 
and spearing—the two methods employed in taking seals at sea. 
While the pelagic skin has only a value of from $7 to $10, the 
value of the government skin ranges from $20 to $30. The pelagic 
