258 THE SEALS. 



crease up to that time having been about one-half of that shown by 

 hhi!. The avove statement is true also, to the best of my knowledge 

 and belief, of the breeding areas of 1870 and the increase of 1882, in- 

 dicated by Thomas F. Morgan upon charts H, I, J, and K, of St. 

 George. 



From 1870 up to the time I left the islands in 1877, the females, of 

 which I made, as careful a. calculation as is possi- 

 Chas. Bryant, p. 7. ble by measuring the areas covered by the breed- 

 ing rookeries, increased from 4 to 5 per cent an- 

 annually. * * * The increase in female life was readily deter- 

 mined by noticing annually the fines of demarcation of the breeding 

 grounds among the rocks, and also from the fact that many lanes 

 through the breeding rookeries to the hauling grounds, left by the old 

 males for the use of the bachelors, which existed in 1870, were entirely 

 closed up by the breeders in 1877, and the bachelors were compelled to 

 haul out on the sand beaches. Another proof of this increase was the 

 fact that in 1870 the breeding seals confined themselves to the shores 

 covered with broken rocks, but in 1877 the areas had increased to such 

 an extent that a considerable percentage of the breeding seals ex- 

 tended out onto the sand beaches, which before they had carefully 

 avoided, for reasons I have heretofore stated. 



In the month of \ of] that year I was in the Bering Sea and at 



the seal islands of St. Paul and St. George. I 

 W. C. Co ulson, p. 414. went on shore on both islands and observed the 

 seals and seal life, the method of killing, etc. I 

 noticed particularly the great number of seal, which were estimated by 

 those competent to judge that at least 5,000,000, and possibly 6,000,000, 

 w T ere in sight on the different rookeries. To me it seemed as though 

 the hillsides and hauling grounds were literally alive, so great was the 

 number of seals. At St. George Island, though the seals were never 

 in as great numbers, nor were there so many hauling places, the seals 

 were very plentiful. At this time and for several years thereafter 

 pelagic sealing did not take place to any extent and the animals were 

 not diverted from their usual paths of travel. 



In 1880 I found the rookeries full, and in my opinion there were as 

 many seals on the islands as at any time during 

 w. H. Doll, p. 23. my experience. 



I have myself observed, and have so learned from others, that for 



the last ten or fifteen years there were more seals 



^JamcsH. Douglass, p. at the islands than there were twenty-two years 



ago when I first visited the Pribilof Islands; an 



increase due, without doubt, to the very careful 



protection and fostering of the seal herds afforded by the Alaska Com- 

 mercial Company, then lessee of the islands. 



Each season while I was located at the islands I made a careful ex- 

 amination of the bieeding grounds on St. George 

 Samuel Falconer, p. 161. Island, noting particularly the areas covered by 

 them. The result of my observations was that 

 there was marked increase in these areas from 1871 to 1870, and neces- 

 sarily a corresponding increase in seal life, for, no matter whether the 

 seals are few or many in number, they always crowd together on the 

 breeding grounds as closely as possible. In my judgment this increase 



