FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1910. 



23 



are idle, indicates conclusively that the herd of breeding bulls is 

 properly safeguarded from too close killing by existing regulations. 



COUNTS OF PUPS. 



Because of the presence of Japanese schooners in numbers close 

 to the islands, counts of pups on St. Paul Island were limited to 

 Kitovi rookery, including Amphitheater. On St. George Island, 

 for the same reason, pups were not counted except on Little East 

 rookery, which now embraces only a few seals. The St. Paul counts 

 follow : 



Counts op Pups on St. Paul Island, 1910. 



Live 

 pups. 



Dead 

 pups. 



Total 

 pups. 



Harems. 



Average 

 harem. 



Kitovi 



Amphitheater . . . 



Total, 1910 

 Total, 1909 



1,717 



187 



1.774 

 192 



33.4 

 21.3 



1,904 

 1,915 



1,966 



1,979 



31.7 

 34.1 



From the comparisons which the foregoing data afford, it would 

 appear that the breeding cows on this rookery have not decreased but 

 have remained virtually stationery as regards numbers during this 

 period. The harems thereon, however, are more numerous, thus 

 giving fewer cows to each bull, or, technically speaking, lowering the 

 average harem on this space from 34.1 in 1909 to 31.7 in 1910. 



On St. George the count of pups on little East, which, as stated, 

 was the only count of pups made on that island, disclosed 75 pups in 

 4 iiarems, or an average of 18.7 cows per harem. The great decrease 

 in this rookery (Little East) ma}^ be appreciated when* it is noted that 

 in 1897 the seal census made by the Jordan Commission gave to this 

 rookery 46 harems and 1,190 cows. The number found there in 1910 

 represents a diminution in thirteen years on this small rookeiy alone 

 of 42 harems and 1,115 cows. 



NUMBER OF BREEDING COWS. 



As it is highly impracticable to count the pups on all the rookeries, 

 it has been customary to arrive at the whole number of breeding 

 cows by estimation based upon an actual count of the whole number 

 of harems on the islands and the average number of cows found to 

 be in each of the harems of one rookery which is accepted as tvpical 

 of all. 



As the number of harems on all islands has been ascertained to 

 be 1,381 and the average harem, as demonstrated by the count of 

 Kitovi, to be 31.7, the whole number of breeding cows in 1910 would 

 be 43,777. As 45,786 of such cows were shown by this method to 



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