272 EVIDENCE OF DECREASE 



I did not notice any falling off in the size of the " rookeries " from the 



landmarks to which they came when I first saw 



Harry N.Clark, p. 159. them during the first two years I was on the 



island, and all agreed, in discussing the matter, 



that the seals had never been more numerous than they then were; but 



in the following years, and particularly in 1888 and 188!), no other 



opinion was heard than that the animals had very greatly diminished, 



and in this opinion 1 fully coincided. 



During the seasons of 1890 and 1891 I was in command of the rev- 

 enue cutter Rush in Bering Sea, and cruised ex- 



W. C. Couhon,p. 414. tensively in those waters around the seal islands 

 and the Aleutian group. In the season of 1890 I 

 visited the islands of St. Paul and St. George in the months of July, 

 August, and September, and had ample and frequent opportunities of 

 observing the seal life as compared with 1870. 1 was astonished at the 

 reduced numbers of seals and the extent of bare ground on the rook- 

 eries in 1890 as compared with that of 1870. and which in that year 

 was teeming with seal life. In 1890 the North American Commercial 

 Company were unable to kill seals of suitable size to make their quota 

 Of 60,000 allowed by their lease, and, in my opinion, had they been per- 

 mitted to take 50,000 in 1801, they could not have secured that num- 

 ber if they had killed every bachelor seal with a merchantable skin on 

 both islands, so great was the diminution in the number of animals 

 found there. 



I arrived with my command at St. Paul Island June 7, 1891. At 

 that date very few seals had arrived, and but a small number had been 

 killed for fresh food. On the 1-th of June, 1891. we were at St. George 

 Island and found a few seals had been taken there, also tor food, the 

 number of seals arriving not being enough to warrant the killing any 

 great number. During that year I was at and around both these 

 islands every month from and including June until the 1st day of De- 

 cember (excepting October), and at no time were there as many seals 

 in sight as in 1890. I assert this from actual observation, and it is my 

 opinion we will find less this year. 



During my annual cruising in Bering Sea and to and from the Pribi- 

 lof Islands I have carefully noted the number and 



Leander Cox, p. 416. appearance of seals in the water and on the breed- 

 ing rookeries from the deck of my vessel and have 

 also repeatedly visited the hauling grounds from year to year, and it 

 was about 1881 and 1885 that bare spots began to appear on the rook- 

 eries, so much so that myself and the other officers often spoke of it and 

 diseussed the causes therefor. 



The decrease in number of seals both on the Pribilof Islands and in 

 the waters of the Bering Sea and North Pacific has been very rapid 

 since 1885, especially so in the last three or four years, and it is my 

 opinion that there is not now more than one third of the number of 

 seals in these waters and on the islands that there were ten years ago. 



During my last visits to the islands I observed a very marked dimi- 

 nution in the number of seals thereon as con- 

 Jas. R. Douglass, p. 4i9.trasted with the herd seen on the rookeries five or 

 six years previously. I am familiar with the area 

 and topography of the various rookeries on the islands, and have ob- 

 served that spaces formerly occupied by seal herds are now vacant and 



