110 ALASKA FISHERIES AND FUR INDUSTRIES IN 1917. 



The relation which the percentage of idle buUs to harem bulls bears 

 to the average harem is shown in the table above. On following this 

 line of data back there is seen to be a general relation on the rooker- 

 ies where many idle buUs gather year after year. But as the idle- 

 buil class as a whole moves and shifts about some, little can be gath- 

 ered therefrom which can be made use of in the estimates for future 

 years. The most important fact there shown is that a large per- 

 centage of idle buUs causes a small average harem. 



HAULING-GROUND SEALS. 



In 1914 it was attempted to make a simultaneous count of all seals 

 on all hauling grounds m order that a positive statement could be 

 made ot the exact number present on a particular date. No greater 

 value was placed upon the operation. AU agree that it might differ 

 on two consecutive days by several thousand because the bachelors 

 are a moving, shifting lot, never stationary for any length of time 

 and governed to a certain extent in their movements by the weather' 

 It takes a large force to make this count simultaneously on every 

 rookery, much larger, in fact, than has been available since 1914. 



At the time of the height-of-the-season harem count it is not diffi- 

 cult to stir up the sleeping bachelors and estimate their numbers 

 Any attempt to separate the young buUs from the bachelors for sep- 

 arate count would be folly. The two classes intergrade. A reason- 

 able approximation to the numbers of each may be had by deter- 

 mining the proportion of each on one or two hauhng grounds and apply- 

 ing this to the whole. This is as close as the value of the count war- 

 rants. In fact, it can not be seen how the results to be gained from 

 this phase of the work justify the expenditure of any appreciable 

 amount of time. Acting upon these premises, the following results 

 were obtained in 1917 ^ ' ' .,,.-& 



harem count table. 



Dates are the same as in the height-of-season 



Hauling-Ground Seals Ashore in 1917 at the Height op the Breeding Season 



July 16-26. ' 



Thus there were somewhat over 20,000 seals on the hauhng grounds 

 at the height of the season. It has long been believed that the 

 number on land at one time is about one-fifth of the total. This 



