REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 51 



CONDITION OF THE FUR-SEAL HERD. 



The growth of the seal herd under the conditions now existino; is 

 continuous and satisfactory, averaging about 10 per cent annually. 

 The census in recent years has been under the supervision of Dr. G. 

 Dallas Hanna, and represents a vast amount of painstaking field 

 and office work. The methods of the census, the basis for the various 

 computations and estimates, the results, and a discussion of the fig- 

 ures and their significance may be found in the report cited in a 

 special section devoted to the census. 



The revised figures of the 1918 census indicated that the seal herd 

 comprised 496,432 animals of all ages as of date of August 10, in 

 addition to 33,881 seals taken for commercial purposes during the 

 year. The unre vised but substantially correct figures of the 1919 

 census give the full strength of the herd, as of date of August 10. as 

 524,260 seals of all ages, exclusive of 26,390 taken for commercial 

 purposes during the census year, a net increase of 27,828. The 

 number of pups born in 1919 was 157,172, as against 142,915 in 1918, 

 the respective figures for breeding cows being the same. 



The great disproportion in the number of old male seals, arising 

 from the total prohibition of commercial sealing during the period of 

 five years ending in 1917, has occasioned much concern and received 

 special consideration. In the taking of seals, efforts have been di- 

 rected to the establishment of a proper proportion of breeding 

 animals, through a reduction in the number of old surplus males. 



QUOTA AND TAKE OF SEALSKINS. 



The 1918 quota of seals to be killed was first fixed at 25,000 and 

 later increased to 35,000. The number actually taken to August 10 

 was 33,881, 26,881 on St. Paul Island and 7,000 on St. George 

 Island; in addition to which there were taken on St. Paul Island 622, 

 and on St. George 387, a total of 1,009 seals, in the fall of 1918 for 

 the food purposes of the natives. 



The quota for 1919 was set tentatively at 35,000 skins, but the 

 number taken through August 10 was only 25,381, of which 22,027 

 were on St. Paul Island and 3,354 on St. George Island. Seals were 

 present in sufficient numbers easily to meet the quota, but there was 

 a scarcity of labor on the islands owing to the quarantine during the 

 influenza epidemic, which prevented the transportation of additional 

 native workmen from the Aleutian Islands, and also made it impossi-' 

 ble for white assistants from St. Louis to reach the Pribilofs. Fur- 

 thermore, there was much additional labor involved in taking and 

 handling the skins of the larger surplus seals whose utilization is 

 demanded. These circumstances reduced the number of skins that 

 could have been taken under normal working conditions. 



FOXES AND REINDEER. 



The blue foxes of the Pribilof Islands are regarded as having fur 

 of better quality than those from any other region. They are 

 trapped, under careful supervision, during a short period in winter, 

 the natives being paid S5 apiece for each fox skin secured. The 

 foxes on St. George Island are more numerous and in better physical 

 condition than on St. Paul Island. In the winter of 1918-19 trap- 



