RErORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 55 



hninerons from the 1 st to tlio 15tli June. About tlie 25th June, in 1891 , 

 tuey were found in abundance by the sealing-schooners on the Portlock 

 banks, to tlio east of Kadink Island. 



About Kadiak tliey are generally found from the 25th May to the end 

 of June, being most abundant in the average of years about the lOth 

 June. They are seldom seen in July, and very rarely even stragglers 

 are noticed after the middle of that month. 



In the latter part of June, or about the 1st July, the female seals in 

 pup, which have entered Behring Sea, are fouiul only making their 

 way rapidly and directly to the breeding islands, while the great body 

 of non -breeding seals either travel in a more leisurely way and with 

 frequent intervals of rest, in the same direction, or disperse themselves 



in search of food over various parts of the sea. 

 30 B 188. According to Elliott, Bryant, and Maynard, the greater 

 number of the adult breeding males (known as "beachmasters" 

 or "seacatchie") arrive at the Pribyloft" Islands and take up positions 

 there, from the 1st to about the middle of June. The females about 

 to give birth to their i)ups follow, at first in small and then in large 

 numbers, their time of arrival ending about the lOth to 25th July. 

 Yearlings (the grey pups of the previous season) come to the islands 

 in great nundjcrs in the latter part of July. 



189. Comparatively little attention has been given to the movements 

 of the full-grown males by the pelagic sealers, because of the snmll 

 value of their skins, but it has been noticed that even as early as May 

 the females at sea are travelling more persistently than the other seals 

 to the north, while after the 1st June they are said to "bunch up" ami 

 to travel so fast towards the passes in the Aleutian Islands, that it is 

 impossible to kill many of them. 



190. Eespecting the extreme southern limit of the range of the fur- 

 seal of the North Pacific on the American coast, little can be added to 

 what has already been published. The earliest departures of vessels 

 for pelagic sealing from Victoria usually occur not long after the 1st 

 January; these vessels then generally cruize southwards, sometimes 

 nearly to thelatitudeof San Francisco, in pursuit of seals; but it would 

 appear that no large " catches " have been recorded to the south of the 

 Columbia River, and frequently much of what has been classed in the 

 Returns as "south-coast catch" has been obtained off the entrance of 

 the Strait of Fuca. It seems certain that in recent years, at least, no 

 considerable number of seals is found further south than about 40o 

 north latitude, though stragglers may find their way much further south. 



Captain Scammon, in his work on marine mammalia, states that fur- 

 seals were formerly abundant on the Californian coast. They have been 

 noted, in small numbers, as lately as 1878 on the coast of Southern 

 California,* while Professor Jordan informs us that they were still taken 

 in considerable numbers on the Guadaloupe Islands there in 1879.t We 

 have also been informed by an ex])erienced sealer that in former years, 

 he had seen fur-seals as far south as the Gulf of Tehuantapec. 



191. On this subject Professor Allen writes: "The fur-seal is well 

 known to have been formerly abundant on the western coast of Korth 

 America, as far south as California, but the exact southern limit of this 

 range I have been uimble to determine." He then quotes Scammon as 

 to the occurrence of these animals on the San Benito Islands, the coast 

 of Lower California, Guadah)upe Island, and Cedros Island, in latitude 

 28^. He adds, writing in 1880: "Although at one time abundant on 



* Elliott, Census Report, p. GO. 



t'Tisliery lucUistries of the United States," vol. ii, p. 393. 



