REPORT OP THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 97 



In compliance with a request from the Bureau of Biological Sur- 

 vey, Department of Agriculture, there were furnished from the 

 Pribilof Islands six pairs of blue foxes for an experimental fox farm 

 located in New York. The foxes were captured on St, George 

 Island, taken to Seattle on the supply steamer, and delivered to an 

 agent of the Department of Agriculture ; two of the animals died en 

 route. 



From the small number of reindeer placed on the seal islands in 

 1911, there has grown a herd which in August, 1916, numbered 

 about 196 animals of all ages. A few of the males have been appro- 

 priated for the food purposes of the natives, and plans have been 

 made for increasing the usefulness of the reindeer to the natives. 



VESSEL FOR THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



St. Paul and St. George Islands, which are the two important 

 islands of the Pribilof group, are approximately 40 miles apart. At 

 present there is no safe means of getting from one island to the other 

 except upon the infrequent occasions when a Coast Guard cutter 

 happens to be in the vicinity or the Bureau's supply steamer Roose- 

 velt is making a regular trip. These islands are practically in the 

 center of Bering Sea and are exposed to heavy storms, hence the 

 smaU launches now in use are altogether unsuited and unsafe for 

 this journey between the islands. It is therefore felt that a stanch 

 vessel at least 75 feet in length and about 18 feet in breadth, and 

 powered with an internal-combustion engine of at least 125 horse- 



Eower, should be secured for use at the islands. This vessel should 

 e of the type which has been developed as the most satisfactory 

 form of cannery tender for use in the exposed waters of Alaska, 

 capable of riding out a gale when necessary. 



A tender of this character for the islands is very much needed for 

 the transportation of persons, especially at the time when the im- 

 portant work of the fur-seal census is in progress, and it is also 

 needed for the transportation of supplies from one island to the 

 other. It is required for occasional trips to Unalaska, the nearest 

 town, 250 miles distant. With the resumption of commercial sealing 

 operations next season, such a vessel wiU be very valuable in handling 

 the increased take of fur-seal skins and other products, particularly 

 in the matter of lightering cargo to the ship, which must anchor 

 some distance offshore. A tender of this type may also be very 

 important for use at times as an auxiliary in guarding the fur-seal 

 herds. 



It is therefore recommended that Congress be asked to authorize 

 the construction or purchase of a vessel of this character for the 

 purposes stated, and an item to this end has been inserted in the 

 estimates of appropriations for 1919. 



SEALSKINS TAKEN BY ABORIGINES. 



Under certain restrictions Indians, Aleuts, and other aborigines 

 dwelling on the Pacific coast of North America north of the thir- 

 tieth parallel of north latitude may hunt fur seals. Primitive 

 methods of capturing seals are enjoined by law and treaty and the 



