PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 87 
List of skins of fur-seals slain on Bering Island for shipment : 
Years. Number. | Years. Number. 
| 
zis Sve eis| ite Le pd ate had 2 
| | | 
PSY s ceo ae aaa Te Bos chan CNL | Wt US foe Ata ae en AM 1 ad es ee 8 | 8, 674 
TS SO kh ee He SOTOM Pl BinO eer eerie a as Sees atin yd Sh 13, 028 
LN cobs a a aE a SMSO HN ileSUeesac see unas eerie eee eee ee ee | 15, 160 
TS 5 ene) eee eee 13, 034 || 1881. -..---..--+.22-seeeeeeeee ener eee | 16, 078 
TATE sen: Se ae ee OG I TL 790)) | P1882 sto dates: ct st sactascssetecte sence! 18, 512 
See rene meee 9, 822 || | 
i]... 2.94 a i ee 6, 006 | Motalslew 82 none cee ee cee ae 142, 556 
I can account for the disagreement in Elliott’s list concerning the 
year 1871 only by supposing that he gives the shipment, while the one 
above shows how many seals were actually killed every year. The 
skins taken in the fall are not shipped before the following year. 
ENHYDRA LUTRIS (Linn.). 
Of this animal I have only to report the sad fact that it has been 
totally exterminated, or nearly so, on Bering Island. It sometimes 
happens that a single animal is killed on shore opposite Copper Island, 
where they still occur in numbers, and I myself was so lucky as to 
observe a sea-otter swmming along the coast on the same side. It was 
far off, and my ball missed it; I had, however, a tolerably good oppor- 
tunity of observing its peculiar manner of swimming by means of a spy 
glass. The present scarcity of this animal on our island, where it has 
been so abundant, will be perceived from the fact that since 187r only 
ten sea-otters have been captured. 
I do not wish to lengthen this already too protracted letter by giving 
details relating to the blue fox (Vulpes lagopus Auct.), and I should 
perhaps let it pass without mentioning, were it not that Professor 
Nordenskjéld has published a very erroneous statement, both as to its 
number and its color. He says (Voy. Vega, Amer. ed., p. 601): 
“Now they are so scarce that during our stay here we did not see one. 
Those that still survive, besides, as the European settled on the island 
informed me, do not wear the precious dark-blue dress formerly common, 
but the white, which is of little value. On the neighboring Copper 
Island, however, there are still dark-blue foxes in pretty large num- 
bers,” and to this he in a foot-note makes the remark that “it thus 
appears as if the eager hunting had an influence not only on the number 
of the animals, but also on their color, the variety in greatest demand 
becoming also relatively less common than before.” 
That the blue fox, however, is by no means uncommon on Bering 
island will be perceived from the fact that a considerable number are 
killed and sent to San Francisco every year. Thus not less than 1,450 
skins were shipped this year (1882), besides 900 from Copper Island. 
The statement about the color is certainly fottnded upon a mistake too, 
for among all the 1,470 skins bought on Bering Island by the Alaska 
Company in the course of this year only 20 are “ white” foxes, so that 
