ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 207 



islands to-day. I should judge that perhaps one-fifth of the whole 

 number were of this color. They do not live apart from the hlue 

 ones, but. evidently breed "in and in." I notice that Veniaminov 

 also makes substantially the same statement, only differing by charg- 

 ing this deterioration of the blue foxes' fur to the deportation from 

 outside of red ones, on ice floes, and adds that the natives always 

 hunted down these "krassnie peeschee" as soon as their presence 

 was known ; hence my inability, perhaps, to see any sign of their pos- 

 terity in 1872-1876. 



The presence of these animals on the Pribilof Islands is a real 

 source of happiness to the natives, especially so to the younger ones. 

 The little pup foxes make pets and playfellows for the children, 

 while hunting the adults during the winter gives wholesome employ- 

 ment to the mind and body of the native who does so. They are 

 trapped in common dead falls, steel-spring clii^s, or beaver traps, and 

 shot. A very large portion of the gossip on the island is in relation 

 to this business. 



PINNIPEDIA. 



Callorhinus ursinus. Fur seal. Abundant. 

 Evimetopias Stelleri. Sea lion. Common. 

 Phoca vitulina. Hair seal. A few only. 



While the Phocidce are so scant as to number and variety in the 

 waters of the North Pacific and Bering Sea, yet they fairly rival the 

 myriads of the fur seal here by their presence in the waters of the 

 North Atlantic, and also their surprising aggregate in the Caspian 

 Sea. So great is the volume of hair-seal life in the circumboreal 

 region of the Orient that the astonishing sum of from 850,000 to 900,- 

 000 Phocidai are annually taken there, and from the Caspian Sea an 

 additional count of a yearly average of 130,000, making a round mil- 

 lion of these animals slaughtered every season. At least such are the 

 data which we find in the writings of the only credible authorities 

 known, viz: Bonnycastle, Newfoundland, in 1842, vol. 1, p. 159; Car- 

 roll, Seal and Herring Fisheries of Newfoundland, 1873, p. 9; Liiide- 

 man, Pet. Geogr. Mitth., pp. vi, 118; Die Arktische Fischerei der 

 Deutscheii Seestadte, 1020-1868; Brown, Man. Nat. Hist. Geol., etc., 

 of Greenland, 1868-1875; Melsom, Pet. Geogr. Mitth., 1869, p. 81; 

 Petersen, Pet Geogr. Mitth., 1870, pp. 194 et seq., 1871, pp. 35 et seq. ; 

 Lovenskiold, Land and Water (newspaper), 1875, p. 160; Schultz, Rep. 

 U. S. Com. Fish and Fisheries, pt. iii, for 1873-74 and 1874-75 (a 

 translation of the original published at St. Petersburg in 1873). Allen, 

 in his History N. A. Pinnipeds, has so liberally compiled and quoted 

 from these authors that it would be simply superfluous service to 

 reprint those records here. 



Odobaenus obesus. Walrus. A few only. 



CETACEA. 



Orca gladiator, var. rectipennis. Killer whales. A few only, 

 Meg-aptera versabilis. Humpback whales. A few only. 



RODENTIA. 



Myodes obensis. Lemming. Abundant on St. George only. 



Mus musculus. House mouse. Common in the villages (imported by man). 



CATALOGUE OF THE BIRDS OP THE PRIBILOF GROUP. 



Vast numbers of waterfov^l. — In the seasons of 1872-73, 

 respectively, throughout the ornithological breeding terms on St. Paul 



