82 THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



Erratt, of San Francisco, last year induced parties of that place to fit 

 out the schooner Lily L. on the face of his positive statement that a 

 fur-seal rookery existed in the vicinity of Cook Inlet. The enterprise 

 was a total failure, however, no rookery being found, although a long 

 and diligent search was made for it. 



Many explanations have been offered of the seals having selected 

 these islands as their home. My observation does 

 J. Stanley Brown, p. ll. not enable me to state their reason for having 

 done so, but the fact remains substantiated by my 

 rxperience and that of all others of whom inquiries were made that these 

 eemote, rock-bound, fog-drenched islands are the chosen resort of the fur- 

 bearing seal (Callorhinus ursinus). The more jagged and irregular the 

 lava fragments that cover the shore, the more continuous the drenching 

 they receive from the moisture laden atmosphere, the better the seals 

 seem to like it. Neither from personal observation, from inquiries of 

 the natives on t he islands and the villages of the Aleutian chain, nor 

 from questioning seafaring men, who, by opportunity for observation 

 and general intelligence, were competent to inform me, could I learn of 

 any other land area ever having been selected by this herd of fur-seal 

 for its residence and for the perpetuation of its species. 



The Alaskan seals make their home on the Pribilof Islands because 

 they need for the period they spend on land a 

 Chas. Bryant, p. 4. peculiarly cool, nioist, and cloudy climate, with 

 very little sunshine or heavy rains. This pecu- 

 liarity of climate is only to be found on the Pribilof and Commander 

 islands, and during my long experience in the North Pacific and Bering 

 ►Sea I never found another locality which possessed these conditions so 

 favorable to seal life. Add to this fact the isolated condition of the seal 

 islands, and we can readily see why the seals selected this home. 



We have never known of fur-seal imps being born elsewhere than 

 on the rookeries of the seal islands in Bering 

 Ivan Canetaleetal., p. 229, Sea. Neither have we any knowledge of the ex- 

 istence of any fur-seal rookeries other than those 

 above mentioned. 



Neither have I any knowledge of a fur-seal rookery existing any- 

 Julius Christiansen., p. where except on the seal islands of Bering Sea. 



219. 



The Pribilof Islands are the chosen home of the fur-seal (Callorhinus 



u rsin us). Upon these islands they are born ; there 



W. H. Dull, p. 23. they first learn to swim, and more than half of 



their life is spent upon them and in the waters 



adjacent thereto. Here they give birth to their young, breed, nurse. 



their pups, and go to and come from their feeding grounds, which may 



be miles distant from the islands. 



I have traveled extensively through the Territory from Sitka to the 



Yukon River, and am positive that no fur-seal 



Jno. Duff, 2>. 228. rookeries exist in the region other than those on 



the seal islands of Bering Sen. Neither have I 



ever heard any reliable information of the existence of other fur-seal 



rookeries. 



