292 . ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



year about one-half are males. The experiment was tried of examining 

 one hundred pups taken at random from the rookeries, and in that num- 

 ber the sexes were about equally divided. Tiie number of bachelor 

 seals in proportion to the cows would also seem to confirm the supposi- 

 tion. There is not the slightest perceptible difl'erence in appearance 

 between seals of the two sexes, either in the first or second year after 

 their birth, but as they grow older they differ, so as to be readily dis- 

 tinguishable from each other. The pups when born have only a short 

 black hair, no fur; this is gradually replaced in their first year by a 

 coat of fine, thick fur of a light gray color, and of hair longer than the 

 fur, so as to cover it, of a silvery gray upon their sides and bellies, but 

 black or very dark gray upon their backs. The color of their hair 

 changes, in their second year, to a uniform dark gray. In their fifth 

 year the hair upon the neck and shoulders of the males begins to grow 

 coarser and longer, forming a sort of mane, which increases in length 

 and stiffness until he has attained his full growth, in his eighth or ninth 

 year. The females are not found upon the hauling grounds with the 

 males after they are two years old; hence it seems probable that they 

 go upon the rookeries in their third, and bear a pup in their foiu-thyear. 

 When both are full grown, the sexes differ most widely in appearance. 

 The male, weighing from four to five hundred pounds, is about three 

 times as large as the female, has a mane, and is either black or dark 

 brown in color. The color of the female is a soft rich brown upon the 

 back and sides, changing almost to orange upon the belly, and she has 

 no mane. The fur of the cows is rather thicker and finer than that of 

 the other seals, though the skins of young males from three to six years 

 old are not very much inferior. 



It is of great importance to know bow many seals come annually to the 

 island, or rather to know how many may be killed for their skins with- 

 out causing a less number to come hereafter than do at the present time. 

 To determine how many there are with accuracy is a task almost on a 

 par with that of numbering the stars. The incessant motion of the ani- 

 mals when on shore, the great variety in size, color, and position, the 

 extent of surface over which they are spread, and the fact that it can 

 not be determined what proportions of them are on shore at any given 

 time, make it simply impossible to get more than an approximation to 

 their numbers. They have been variously estimated at from one to fif- 

 teen millions. I think the most accurate numeration yet made is that 

 by Mr. H. W. Elliott, special agent of the Treasury Department, in 1872. 

 This calculation Is based upon the hypothesis that the breeding seals are 

 governed in hauling by a common and invariable law of distribution, 

 which is, that the area of rookery is directly proportional to the number 

 of seals occupying it. He estimates that tbete is one seal to every two 

 square feet of rookery surface; hence the problem is reduced to the sim- 

 ple operation of obtaining half the sum of the superficial areas of all the 

 rookeries in square feet. He surveyed the rookeries of both islands in 

 1872, when at their greatest limit of expansion, and obtained the follow- 

 ing results: Upon St. Paul Island there were 6,000,000 square feet of 

 ground, occupied by 3,030,000, and on St. George Island 326,840 square 

 feet, occupied by 163,420; a total for both islands of 3,193^420 breeding 

 seals. The number of nonbreeding seals can not be determined in the 

 foregoing manner, as they haul most irregularly; but it seems probable 

 that they are nearly as numerous as the other class, which would give 

 not far from 6,000,000 as the number of seals of all kinds which visited 

 the island during the season of 1872. 



It is likely that these figures are not far from the truth, but I do not 



