316 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



of our Government on tlie Pribilov Islands, and that immediate action 

 necessary, viewed in the full light of existing- danger. 



VIII. Appendix, in which the author's daily field notes appear ?'er- 

 hatim ct literatim, in order of day and date. 



IX. Eevised general maps of St. Paul and St. George, showing the 

 area and position of the hauling grounds of the fur seal thereon in 

 1872-1874 and again in 1890. 



X. A series of special maps showing the exact topography, area, and 

 position of the breeding rookeries of St. Paul and St. George islands 

 in 1872-1874 and again in 1890, together with an illustration of each 

 rookery, drawn from life by the author. 



Although I was unable to detect any sign of existing danger or 

 injury to those interests of our Government on these islands of Pribilov 

 in 1872-1874, yet the need of caution on the part of the agents of the 

 Government, and their close annual scrutiny, was ])oiuted out and 

 urged by my published work of 1874^ in the following language (pp. 

 75-77): 



Until my arrival on tlie seal islands, April, 1872, no steps had been, taken toward 

 ascertaining the extent or the importance of these interests of the Governinent by 

 either the Treasury agent in charge, or the agent of the company leasing the islands. 

 This was a matter of no especial concern to the latter, but was of the first impor- 

 tance to tlie Government. It had, however, failed to obtain definite knowledge upon 

 the subject, on account of the inaccurate mode of ascertaining the number of seals 

 which had been adoi)ted by its agent, who relied upon an assumption of the area of 

 the breeding rookeries, but who never took the trouble to ascertain the area and 

 position of these great seal grounds intrusted to his care. 



After a careful study of the subject duriug two whole seasons, and a thorough 

 review of it during this season of 1874, in company with ray associate, Lieutenant 

 Maynard, I propose to show plainly and in sequence the steps which have led me to 

 a solution of the question as to the number of fur seals on the Pribilov Islands, 

 together wdth that determination of means by which an agent of the Government 

 will be able to correctly report upon the condition of the seal life from year to year. 



At the close of my investigation for the season of 1872, the fact became evident 

 that the breeding seals obeyed implicitly a fine, instinctive law of distribution: so 

 that the breeding ground occupied by them w^as always covered by seals in an exact 

 ratio, greater or less as the area was held ; that they always covered the ground 

 evenly, never crowding in at one place and scattering out at another ; that the seals 

 lay just as thickly together where the rookery is a small one of only a few tlionsand, 

 as at Nahspeel, near the village, as they do where a million of them come together, as 

 at Northeast Point. 



This fact being determined, it is at once jilain that just as the breeding grounds of the 

 fur seal on these islands expand or contract in area from tlieir present dimensions, so the 

 seals will have increased or diminished. 



Impressed, therefore, with the necessity and the importance of obtaining the exact 

 area and position of these breeding grounds, I surveyed them in 1872-73 for that 

 purpose, and resurveyed them this season of 1874. The result has been carefully 

 drawn and plotted out, as presented in the accompanying maps. 



The time for taking the boundaries of the rookeries is during the week of their 

 greatest expansion, or when they are as full as they are to be for the season, and 

 before the regular system of compact, even organization breaks up : the seals then 

 scattering out in pods or clusters, straying far back, the same number covering then 

 twice as much ground in places as they did before when marshaled on the rookery 

 ground proper. The breeding seals remain on the rookery perfectly quiet and en 

 masse for a week or ten days during the period of greatest expansion, which is 

 between the 10th and 20th of July, giving ample time for the agent to correctly note 

 the exact boundaries of that area covered by them. This step on the part of the Gov- 

 ernment officer puts him in possession every year of exact data upon which to base 

 a report as to the condition of the seal life as compared with the year or years pre- 

 vious. In this way my record of the precise area and position of the fur-seal breed- 

 ing grounds on St. Paul Island in the season of 1872, and that of St. George in the 

 season of 1873, correctly serves as a definite basis for all time to come, upon which 



lA Report upon the Condition of Aff"airs in the Territoiy of Alaska, by Henry W. 

 Elliott, special agent Treasury Department. Washington: Government Printing 

 Office, 1875. pp. 277, 8vo. 



