82 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Mr. N. B. Miller. The delineation of the rookeries and the taking of 

 the photographs were all accomplished during the period when seal 

 life was most abundantly represented on the islands — that is to say, 

 when the rookeries had reached their maximum development for the 

 season and before the females had begun their search for food. The 

 views, 46 in number, were taken from the same positions as in 181)2, and, 

 so far as the weather permitted, at corresponding dates. The observa- 

 tions related mainly to the abundance of seals as compared with the 

 previous season, the number of bachelor seals available for killing, the 

 effects of long-distance drives and of culling, and the results to be 

 expected from a continuance of pelagic sealing. In accordance with 

 the law, the report of Mr. Townsend was transmitted to the Secretary 

 of the Treasury. 



The experience of the Albatross in previous years, as well as in 1803, 

 has demonstrated that the pelagic habits of the seals can not be satis- 

 factorily studied by means of so large a vessel, if by a steamer at all, 

 about the only opportunities afforded for examining specimens being on 

 the few occasions when a sealing schooner is boarded. To obviate this 

 difficulty during the season of 1894, arrangements were made before 

 the close of the fiscal year to have Mr. A. B. Alexander accompany 

 one of the vessels actually engaged in pelagic sealing during the open 

 period in the Bering Sea — that is to say, after August 1. The impor- 

 tance of such an undertaking will consist in the advantages to be gained 

 from expert evidence in respect to several of the questions which have 

 given rise to controversy, such as the proportions of each sex found at a 

 distance from the islands, the breeding condition of the females there 

 taken, the feeding habits of the seals, the character of their food, etc. 



OPERATIONS OF THE STEAMER ALBATROSS IN THE NORTH 

 PACIFIC OCEAN AND BERING SEA. 



During the summer of 1893 the steamer Albatross, Commander Z. L. 

 Tanner, U. S. N., commanding, was attached to the sealing patrol fleet 

 operating in the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea under the orders 

 of the Secretary of the Navy. Her instructions also provided for the 

 customary fishery investigations and for those relating to the pelagic 

 habits of the fur-seal, as directed by Congress, which were to be carried 

 on to the extent permitted by the requirements of this special detail. 

 Through the cooperation of the senior naval officer in charge, a consid- 

 erable amount of time was allotted to these inquiries, but they were 

 necessarily restricted to that part of Bering Sea within the limits of 

 possible pelagic sealing. 



Leaving Port Townsend, Wash., on May 24, 1893, the Albatross fol- 

 lowed along the course taken by the seal herds and the sealing fleet as 

 far as Unalaska, whence she proceeded by way of Bering Sea and 

 Amukta Pass to Adak Island, of the Aleutian chain, arriving at the 

 latter place on July 1, the beginning of the fiscal year. The object of 

 visiting Adak Island was to learn if one of its harbors, the Bay of 

 Waterfalls, was being used as a rendezvous by pelagic sealers and 



