368 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



The foregoing figures, presented step by step as they were made, 

 declare the fact that in 1890 there are in round numbers, only one-third 

 the number of breeding seals and young on the Pribilov rookeries which . 

 existed in 1872-1874. 



Following my figures, published in 1874, 1 made this detailed explana- 

 tion of my understanding of the question as to number and condition. 

 It is i)erfectly applicable to the x)resent order of affairs : 



The figures above thus show a graud total of 3,193,420 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 

 these grounds which have been surveyed and epitomized by th^ 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 hauling grounds is not systematic ; 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 surveyed 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 the contrary, 

 upon the hauling grounds to-day an immense drove of 100,000 will be seen before you 

 at English Bay, sweeping hither and surging thither over the polished surface which 

 they have worn with their restless flippers, tracing and retracing their tireless 

 marches. To-morrow, if a heavy rain has fallen in the meantime, or it has changed 

 to an unusually warm, dry day, you will scarcely find 10,000 there or here where you 

 saw legions yesterday. Conseqviently the amount of ground occupied by the hollu- 

 schickie is vastly in excess of what they would require did they conform to the same 

 law of distribution observed by the breeding seals, and this ground is therefore 

 wholly intenable 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 aggre- 

 gate number of holluschickie, or nonbreeding seals, on the Pribilov Islands, embrac- 

 ing, as it does, all the males under 6 and 7 years of age and all the yearling females, 

 it must necessarily be a simple opinion of mine founded upon nothing better than my 

 individual judgment. This is my conclusion : 



The nonbreeding seals seem nearly 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. 



My estimate, as above cited, of 1,500,000 nonbreeding seals (i. e., all 

 males under 7 years and the yearlings of both sexes) as existing and 

 hauling on the Pribilov Islands during the seasons of 1872-1874 was a 

 very conservative one— /rtr more conservative and less liberal than the one 

 1 am about to male for the number of holluscMclde and yearlings ichich 

 have survived and appear in 1890, upon these hauling grounds of the seal 

 islands of Alaska: and this calculation appears with detail in the fol- 

 lowing section {Section II) of this report. Briefly stated here, it is an 

 extremely liberal estimate of mine ichen I admit the existence to-day {July 

 31, 1890) upon these islands of 80,000 holluschiclcie and ^'' polseacatchie^^'' 

 1. e., male fur seals from 1 year up to G years old ! 



Natn rally enough , when summing up my work of 1872-1874, the thought 

 arose as to the probable future of those wonderful exhibitions of massed 

 animal life which I saw before me then, ui)on the Pribilov rookeries. As 

 to the subject of their increasing, I said — 



I am free to say that it is not within the power of human management to promote 

 this end to the slightest appreciable degree over its present extent and condition as 

 it stands in the state of nature heretofore described. It can not fail to be evident, 

 from my detailed narration of the. habits and life of the fur seal on these islands 

 during so large a part of every year, that could man have the same supervision and 

 control over this animal during the whole season which he has at his command while 

 they visit the land, he might cause them to multiply and increase, as he would so 

 many cattle, to an indefinite number — only limited by time and the means of feeding 

 them. But the case in question, un fortunately, is one where the fur seal is taken, 

 by demands for food, at least six months out of every year, far beyond the reach or 



