174 MIGRATION OF THE HERD. 



plentiful and apparently in peaceful possession of a liberal supply of 

 red rockfish about 75 miles off Yakutat. 



As the cold weather approaches, the females and young leave Bering 

 Sea, and about two months later appear off the American coast, where 

 they find a genial climate and an abundance of food. They appear on 

 the coast of California and Oregon simultaneously with the smelt and 

 herring. As I previously reported, we learned upon our arrival at 

 Astoria, March 18, that the smelt had come and gone; that they were 

 unusually early this year. We were told by the sealers off the coast at 

 that time, and our observations confirmed it, that the seals were mov- 

 ing north unusually early. On the coast of Alaska in April and May, 

 when according to our observations and the testimony of the Indians 

 seals are most plentiful, we found the bays filled with herring, smelt, 

 and eulachon. 



The seals commence to appear in the Straits of San Juan de Fuca 

 about the 1st of January or the last of December 

 Alfred Irving, p. 386. and come and go to the middle of July. The gen- 

 eral course seemed to be to the north, and by the 

 middle of June the grown cows were most all gone, but the younger 

 ones used to be quite plentiful until about the middle of July, when 

 they would also disappear. 



Q. What time of the year do you generally start out sealing in the 

 Pacific and up to what time do you continue? — 

 Gustave Isaacson, p.m. A. In the middle January or February. 



Q. What time of the year are the seals all out 

 of the Pacific, having gone to the Bering Sea? — A. About the latter 

 part of June. 



Q. What time of the year do you generally start out sealing in the 

 Pacific, and up to what time do you continue? — A. 

 Frank Johnson, p. 441. From the latter part of January, generally, until 

 the latter part of September; the middle of Sep- 

 tember. 

 Q. What time of the year are the seals practically out of the Pacific, 

 having gone to the Bering Sea? — A. 1 always fouud them very scarce 

 in the latter part of June. 



Sclwish Johnson, p. 389. Seals appear off* Cape Flattery in December and 

 January and nearly all of them are gone by the 

 first of July. 



The seals first make their appearance about the middle of April off 

 Sitka Sound, and disappear about July 1. They 

 P. Kahiktday,p. 262. are thou on their way up the coast. 



Do not kuowwhere the old bulls spend the winter, anddo not know 



the routes the fur-seal herds take in their migra- 



Saml. Kahoorof, p. 214. tions to and from the Commander and Pribilof 



islands; neither do I think the two herds come 



near enough together in these latitudes to mix. 



p. Kashcvaroff, p. 261. First seal were seen off Sitka Sound in May 

 by me. We followed the seals as far as Sand 

 Point on Unger Island. 



