ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 699 



seal has no value, being based wholly upon assumptions. It is certain 

 that the fish life of Bering Sea is in no appreciable way affected by the 

 feeding of the seals. 



■ Page 105: It is absurd to say tliat "an adequate realization by 

 ichthyologists and fishermen as to M'hat havoc the fur-seal hosts are 

 annually making among the cod, herring, and salmon of the iN'orth- 

 west Coast and Alaska would disconcert and astound them. In Ber- 

 ing Sea tlie fur seal feeds almost exclusively on pollock, seal fish, and 

 squid. iSTone of these are used as food by man. The seal fish, a small 

 surface swimming smelt, has never yet been taken by man, all our 

 knowledge of it being drawn from skeletons found in the stomach of 

 fur seals. Other species are occasionally eaten, and as the fur seals go 

 up the coast they capture salmon, herring, and rockfish, but not 

 enough to affect in any tangible way the fisheries. There are no fisli- 

 ing banks in the jS^orth Pacific south of the Aleutian Islands, nor do 

 our fur seals invade the Japanese side of the ocean. 



It is not likely that the fur seals feed upon crustaceans at all. By 

 "tender algoid sprouts" we suppose the author means the tunicates 

 which are attached to the roots of large algic. They are small marine 

 animals from 1 to 2 inches in diameter, of leathery substances and 

 hollow within. But neither tunicates nor alga; are food for the fur 

 seals, young or old. 



Page 108: In making this statement regarding the "imi)ossibility of 

 human management to promote" the increase of seal life, Mr. Elliott 

 was not aware of the large natural loss on the rookeries among the 

 pups due to the parasitic worm Uncinaria and to trami)ling. Both 

 these losses are considerable and are directly related to defective rook- 

 ery conditions, which are, to a limited extent at least, within the con- 

 trol of man. With the sandy and flat areas broken up or covered with 

 rocks, this loss must be greatly reduced and, consequently, the increase 

 of the herd augmented. 



Page 109: Unfortunately, the stakes and marks here stated to have 

 been set up to show the surveys of Mr. Elliott are not to be found. Had 

 such permanent niarks been left they would to-day furnish much needed 

 light on the early condition of the rookeries. 



Page 112 : Wehave here another illustration of the looseuse Mr. Elliott 

 makes of figures. He now states the poi)ulation of fur seals, "male 

 and female," at 2,500,000 to 3,000,000. On page 108 it was between 

 4,000,000 and 5,000,000, which agrees with his completed census — 

 4,700,000. In our judgment this latest estimate is very near the truth, 

 though unintentionally so' It wonld, however, be of no more value 

 than the others did it not correspond better to the known history of the 

 herd. We cite it here simply to show the erratic way in which Mr. 

 Elliott uses figures. 



Page 112 : The statement here made "that the fur seal can not breed, 

 or rest, for that matter, on any other land than that now resorted to 

 which lies within our boundary lines" is an extreme one, and rests solely 

 upon individual opinion. There are many islands of the Aleutian chain 

 which doubtless furnish, in shore and climatic conditions, equally suit- 

 able breeding grounds. But these and all other islands than the Pribi- 

 lof, Commander, and Kuril islands were known to i)rimitive man, and 

 this fact probably prevented their becoming breeding grounds for the 

 fur seal. The habit of resort to the islands once formed it was too 

 strong even for the presence of nsan to affect. In fact, no operation of 

 man can be said to have attracted the attention of the animals at all. 

 All the operations of their lives go on just as if they had never seen man. 



