REPOUT OF COMMlSStONEfl Of FiStI AND FISHERIES. CI 



especially favoring the passes or exposed points where strong currents 

 prevail. This habit would preclude the use of purse seines for their 

 capture, but they can readily be taken by other methods. With respect 

 to seals, Lieut. Commander Tanner states: 



The agent and several of the older and moat intelligent hunters testified regarding 

 the movements of fur seals, and were unanimous in the opinion that the herds do 

 not use the passes between Amukta and Great Kiska islands in their migrations to 

 and from Bering Sea. Only scattering seals have been seen by them in the Andrea- 

 nof and Kryci islands, and they were mostly gray pups, which appear from Septem- 

 ber to November, usually after northerly gales; they are never seen during the 

 winter. They are captured whenever opjiortunity offers, and the flesh used for food, 

 it being considered a great delicacy; the skins are either used for domestic purposes 

 or sold to the comiiany. A dozen seals a year would probably be a fair average for 

 the Atka hunters. 



Attu Island was next visited. The occupation of the natives is the 

 same here as at Nazan, the hunting-grounds embracing their own 

 island, Agattu, and the Semichi group. This was formerly a rich sta- 

 tion, but the sea otters have been steadily decreasing in abundance, 

 and are now scarce. Halibut are taken in small quantities in the 

 spring, while cod are present at all seasons. The Atka mackerel is 

 abundant from April to September and forms an important article of 

 food. The condition of the people at this place, especially the women 

 and children, was so deplorable from the lack of proper food, owing to 

 the severe winter, that sufficient rations were issued to them from the 

 Albatross to relieve their wants until the arrival of the supply vessel. 

 The native hunters, according to Lieut. Commander Tanner, were prac- 

 tically unanimous ou the following iDoints: 



Fur seals are seldom seen about Attu, Agattu, and the Semichi Islands, and they 

 have never been known to haul out except when wouuded; two or three instances 

 are remembered of wonnded seals having been shot while hauled out to rest. Twenty- 

 five or thirty years ago the older hunters recollected seeing them in small squads about 

 the kelp beds, during the mouth of June, feeding on Atka mackerel. They never 

 saw any seals east of the Semichis, nor had they ever seen any about during the 

 winter season. 



It will be remembered that the Atka hunters did not l)elieve that the Pribilof herd 

 used the passes west of Amukta Island; the Attu men never saw fur seals east of the 

 Semichi group, and the J /&rt<ross experience in traversing the whole length of the 

 Aleutian Archipelago from Unalaska to Attu without seeing even a single individual 

 seems to confirm the native belief that the Commander Islands herd do not enter or 

 leave the sea east of Attu and the Pribilof herd do not enter or leave west of the Four 

 Mountain Pass. 



A line of soundings was run May 29 and 30 across the wide entrance 

 into Bering Sea from Attu Island, the westernmost of the Aleutian 

 chain, to Copper Island, of the Commander group. Only deep water 

 was found in this space, the maximum depth discovered being 1,996 

 fathoms, about 30 miles off" Copper Island. The Commander Islands 

 are located at the eastei^n edge of the continental platform off the 

 Kamchatkan coast, and apparently have no direct connection with the 

 Aleutian chain. 



On May 31 the Albatross reached I^ikolski, on Bering Island, the 



