REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 59 



it Las been ascertained, that in former years, when the Alaska Commer- 

 cial Company's vessel followed the southern route in her spring voyage 

 from San Francisco to Petropaulouski, fui'-seals were often seen at sea 

 in the mouth of May in about the same latitude. 



201 When the seals first come south in the autumn, the grey pups 

 are often abundant not far from the shores of Yezo and about Nambu,* 

 and from 2,000 to 3,000 are annually taken there by the inhabitants, m 

 boats In the Memorandum just referred to, it is stated that, "Large 

 numbers of seals from the Kussian rookeries are scattered every winter 

 over the ocean lying off the east coast of Japan, but they are unmo- 

 lested by foreign or native seabng-vessels, and only the fringe of them 

 is touched by native fishermen in their open boats along the Nambu 

 and Yezo coast." , . ., • i 



202. When these seals move to the northward, in the spring or early 

 ' summer, they doubtless follow a route parallel to the line of the 

 33 Kurile Islands, though there is nothing known to show whether 

 they pass near to these islands, or at some considerable distance 

 to the eastward of them. According to Mr. Grebnitsky, Superintend- 

 ent of the Commander Islands, the seals travel with the northward 

 branch of the Japan current, and are first seen on the south-western 

 shore of Copper Island, where some of them land, while others continue 

 their journey to the north-westward, between Copper and Behring 

 Islands; and those which land on the northern rookery of Behring 

 Island come to it eventually from a north-eastern direction. The same 

 gentleman further states, as the result of his observations, that these 

 naturally pelagic animals land thus on the Commander Islands only 

 because it is necessary for the females to do so in order to give birth to 

 their young; while he believes the main reason of the landing, at later 

 dates, of the seals not actually engaged in breeding, is that during the 

 <' shedding" or "stagey" season, their pelage becomes too thin to afford 

 a suitable^'protection from the water. The date of arrival of the seals 

 on the Commander Islands is somewhat later than on the Pribyloff 

 Islands, and the dates of leaving appear to be also later and rather 

 more irregular in correspondence with the longer summer season and 

 less precisely marked beginning of cold weather. In fact, in unusually 

 mild years, a few fur-seals may generally be found about the Com- 

 mander Islands all the winter. ^ , » , ^ ,» 



203. According to Captain Brandt, of the Russian gun-boat " Aleut," 

 who has had long experience of these waters, the fur-seals frequenting 

 Robben Island, on the east coast of Saghalien in Okotsk Sea, pass 

 through the Kurile Archipelago into the Pacific in autumn and do not 

 go directly south into the Japan Sea; though he has seen a few fur- 

 seals at sea. not far to the north of Vladivostok. 



204. It will be observed that the migration-range of the fur-seals fre- 

 quenting the Commander Islands is somewhat less extended than that 

 of those resorting to the Pribyloff Islands, its entire length being little 

 more than 1,000 miles. . ^. n 



205. It is of interest here to refer to the account of the migrations ot 

 the fur-seal or "sea cat," drawn up by the Russian Kraschenimikofl, 

 which is supposed to be based partly on his own observations and 

 largely on those of his fellow-traveller Steller, both members of Behring 

 Expedition.! He writes : " The sea cats are caught in the spring and 

 in the month of September, about the River Sheepanova; at which 

 time they go from the Kurilskoy (Kurile) Islands to the American 



* A seaport on the east coast of Nipon, near latitude 40°. . . , „ „,. 



t Quoted by J. A. Allen in "Mouosraph of North American Pinnipeds, p. d4l; 

 from Grieves' English translation, 1764, 



