REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OE FISH AND FISHERIES. 16 



necessary observations, but also signified its hearty indorsement of 

 tlie objects of bis visit. Mr. Stejneger left San Francisco Jnne G, 1895, 

 on the Alaska Commarcial Company's steamer Bertha^ for Unalaska, 

 where he joined the A Ibatross, and was taken thence to the Commander 

 Islands, stopping for a few days en route to examine the rookeries of 

 the Pribilof Islands. 



OPERATIONS OF THE ALBATROSS IN THE NORTH PACIFIC 

 OCEAN AND BERING SEA. 



During the summer of 1894, as in the previous year, the steamer 

 Albatross, Lieut. Commander F. J. Drake, U. S. 1^., commanding, was 

 again serving in connection with the sealing patrol fleet in the JSTorth 

 Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, under the direction of the Secretary of 

 the Navy. Her movements were therefore subject to the orders of 

 the senior naval officer in charge, but, so far as the exigencies of this 

 special detail permitted, the customary inquiries respecting the Alaskan 

 fishing-grounds and the pelagic habits of the fur-seal were to be carried 

 on, and complete instructions covering those subjects were issued to the 

 commanding officer. The annual examination of the rookeries of the 

 Pribilof Islands also devolved upon the naturalist of the Albatross, 

 whose observations in that regard are elsewhere referred to. 



On May 17, 1894, in company with the flagship of the fleet, the IT. S. 

 S. Mohican, the Albatross left Port Town send. Wash., and proceeded 

 to Unalaska, going thence to Attn Island, at the western end of the 

 Aleutian chain, for the purpose of conveying Lieutenant Jacobs, U. S. 

 E. M., to that place, which had been selected as the point of registry 

 for the fur-seal vessels entering Bering Sea from the Asiatic side. • On 

 the return triji an outlook was kept for sealing schooners among the 

 I)asses of the Aleutian Islands, and stops were made at the islands of 

 Agattu, Kyska, and Atka, the fishing-grounds in their vicinity being 

 hastily examined. The regular i:>atrolling work in Bering Sea was 

 taken up before the close of June, 1891, and was continued until after 

 the middle of September, being interrupted only by visits to Unalaska 

 for coal and to the Pribilof Islands in connection with the rookery 

 investigations, and by a trip to the region of the Sannak Islands. 

 In the course of the season the cruising-ground of the Albatross was 

 extended practically to all sides of the seal islands, both outside and 

 inside of the protected zone of 60 miles radius. 



The first part of July Shaw Bay, on the north side of Unimak Island, 

 and Akutan Bay were visited. On the 12th of the same month Mr. 

 C. H. Townsend and Mr. K. B. Miller were landed on the Pribilof 

 Islands to begin the photographing and delineation of the rookeries, 

 and the steamer jjroceeded thence to the southern entrance to Isanotski 

 Strait, between Unimak Island and the mainland, in order to intercept 

 any sealing vessels that might attempt a passage through. After 

 ' remaining there and at Morzhovoi village several days she joined with 

 the U. S. S. Petrel in an examination of the anchorages about the Sannak 



