REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 85 



of skins wliich lias actually occurred in late years on the Pribyloff 

 Islands, because of the scarcity of males of 3 or 4 years of age and 

 wiiicli penults the killing to embrace those of 2 years old and eveu year- 

 lings, is the most effectual metliod possible of cutting off the supply of 

 virile males at the fountain head, and of enlarging the void in male seal 

 life to alarming proportions. 



290. Details of this kind, with their observed effects on seal life, are 

 cited in abstract in the historical notes elsewhere given (§ 810 et seq.), 

 but it is impossible to adequately represent in summarized form the 

 whole of the facts bearing on this point. Captain Bryant's observa- 

 tions, as quoted by Allen, should be referred to.* 



291. The diminution which has culminated in late years on the 

 Pribyloff Islands recalls the criticism made by Lutke, when he visited 

 these islands in 1827. Lutke writes : 



La pr6caution de separer les gros mMes d'avec ceux qui doivent etre tu^s, est 

 n^ccssaire pour entreteuir la multiplication ; mais cette precaution cst-elle suffisante 



pour cela? Si tons les jeunes sont extermiD<^s, d'oii sortirout a la tin les gros 

 52 males? Les chasseurs exp6rimeutcs out observ6 que les ours uiarius viveut de 



quiuze a vingt ans ; il en r^sulte qu'avec cette m6tliode dans vingt aus il ne 

 doit plus tester un sen 1. 1 



(F.) — Requisite proportions of Sexes. 



292. Though each full-grown male or " seacatch " holding his place on 

 the rookery ground endeavours to obtain and keep about him as many 

 females as possible, there is a limit to the number which may be advan- 

 tageously held by a single male, and when adult males are found in 

 abundance, it is not easy to pass this normal limit; but, on the other 

 hand, when, in consequence of a x>aucity of adult males in proportion 

 to females, the harems become too large, the females are irregularly 

 served, served too late in the season, or, in some cases, may altogether 

 escape efficient service, with resulting irregularities in times of birth of 

 young in the next year, or an addition to the number of barren females. 



293. The proper proportion of adult males to females cannot be ascer- 

 tained by inspection of the Pribyloff rookeries as they are at present, 

 because of the obvious and generally acknowledged deficiency of virile 

 males; but in the earlier years of the control of these islands by the 

 United States, Bryant estimated the existing proportion as about one 

 male to fifteen females, or, as indicated by other statements by the same 

 writer, as one to nine or twelve. | Elliott, a few years later, and subse- 

 quent to the date of certain changes in organization of the seals 

 described by Bryant, writes: — "I found it an exceedingly difiicult 

 matter to satisfy myself as to a fair general average number of cows to 

 each bull on the rookery; but, after protracted study, I think it will be 

 nearly correct when 1 assign to each male a general ratio of from fifteen 

 to twenty females at the stations nearest the water, and from there 

 back in order from that line to the rear from five to twelve." § M. Greb- 

 nitsky. Superintendent of the Commander Islands, as the result of his 

 prolonged experience, states that the proportion of one adult male to 

 ten females should not, as a rule, be overpassed, and that one to twenty 

 may be considered as a maximum limit. Captain Blair, long familiar 

 with the fur-seals of the Asiatic coast, informed us, in si)eaking of 

 liobben Island, that the number of males now existing there, viz., one 



* "Monograpli of North American Pinnipeds," p. 398 et seq. 

 tLutkd "Voyage autour du Monde," tome i, p. 261. 

 t Monograph of North American Pinnipeds/'pp. 385, 390. 

 ^ United States Census Report, p. 36. 



