100 



ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



the westward and northwest of the rookery seem to be filled up with 

 a mnddy alluvial wash that the seals do not favor; hence nothing but 

 ^'holluschickie" range round about them. 



Recapitulation. — In recapitulation, therefore, the breeding 

 grounds on St. George Island, according to the surve3^s which I made 

 between the 12th and loth of Jul}-, 1873, gave the following figures. 

 They are also, as in the case of St. Paul, the first surveys ever made 

 here : 



Breeding grounds, July 13-15, 1873. 



Sea 

 margin. 



Average 

 depth. 



Seals, 

 male, fe- 

 male, 

 and 

 young 



Zapadnie rookery 



Starry Ateel rookery.. - 



North rookery _ 



Little Eastern rookery. 

 Great Eastern rookery _ 



Feet. 

 600 

 .500 

 750 

 2,000 

 7.50 

 900 



Feet. 



125 

 1.50 



18,000 

 30,420 



77,000 

 1.3,000 

 25, (XK) 



Total seal life for St. George Island, breeding seals and young. 

 Grand total for St. Paul Island, brought forward 



163, 430 

 3,030,000 



Grand sum total for the Pribilof Islands (season of 1873) . 



3, 193, 430 



The figures above thus show a grand total of 8,193,420 breeding seals 

 and their young. This enormous aggregate is entirely exclusive of 

 the great numbers of the nonbreeding seals that, as we have pointed 

 out, are never permitted to come up on those grounds whicli have been 

 surveyed and epitomized by the table just exhibited. That class of 

 seals, the "holluschickie," in general terms all males, and those to 

 which the killing is confined, come up on the land and sea beaches 

 between the rookeries in immense, straggling droves, going to and 

 from the sea at irregular intervals from the beginning to the closing of 

 the entire season. The method of the "holluschickie" on these haul- 

 ing grounds is not sj^stematic — it is not distinct, like the manner and 

 law prescribed and obeyed by the breeding seals, which fill up those 

 rookery grounds to the certain points as survej^ed, and keep these 

 points intact for a week or ten days at a time during the height of 

 every season in July and August; but, to thecontraiy, upon the haul- 

 ing grounds to-day an immense drove of 100,000 will be seen before 

 yon at English Bay, sweeping hither and surging thither over the pol- 

 ished surface whicli they have worn with their restless flippers, tra- 

 cing and retracing their tireless marches. Consequently the amount 

 of ground oecui)ied by the "holluschickie" is vastly in excess of what 

 they would require did Wxey conform to the same law of distribution 

 observed by the breeding seals, and this ground is therefore wholly 

 untenable for any such definite basis and satisfactory conclusion as 

 is that which I have surveyed on the rookeries. Hence, in giving an 

 estimate of the aggregate'number of "holluschickie" or nonbreeding 

 seals on the Pribilof Islands, embracing, as it does, all the males under 

 6 and 7 years of age and all tlie yearling females, it must necessarily 

 be a.simf)le opinion of mine, founded upon nothing better than my 

 individual judgment. This is my conclusion: 



The nonbreeding seals seem neaii}- equal in number to that of the 

 adult breeding seals ; but without putting them down at a figure quite 

 so high, I may safely say that the sum total of 1,500,000, in round 

 numbers, is a fair enumeration, and quite within bounds of fact. 

 This makes the grand sum total of the fur-seal life on the Pribilof 

 Islands over 4,700,000. 



