118 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



there, these ishinds heing' very inaccessible to small cvaft on accoiTnt of 

 the stroni>' tides and cross currents which prevail in their neighbour- 

 hood." 



Mr. Mackay's authority for the first part of the above statement are 

 the Indians iDrcviously referred to, and the matter must even, at the 

 early date at which Mr. Mackay first knew them, have become tra- 

 ditional. 



425. Under the heading of Migrations and Eange (§ 171 et seq.), suffi- 

 cient allusion to the former abundance of fur-seals on the Californian 

 coast, and to their breeding' places there, now apparently abandoned, 

 has been made. Further particulars may be found in Scammon's work 

 and elsewhere. 



420. From the foregoing notes, it may be gathered that the increasing 

 timidity of the fur-seal has caused it almost completely to abandon its 

 original habit of occasionally landing elsewhere than on the main breed- 

 ing islands, and has led, besides, to the probably complete abandonment 

 of certain local breeding places where small numbers of seals resorted 

 in former years. Not only so, but the seals now shun more than ever 

 the entire vicinity of the coast, and are found at sea in undiminished 

 quantity only by the pelagic sealers, whose o]ierations do not depend 

 on proximity to the land. The same instinct has its efi'ect also on the 

 breeding islands, to the continuous harassing of the seals upon which 

 its growth is doubtless in large part due. On the islands, it shows itself 

 particularly iu the late arrival, short stay upon, or continued avoidance 

 of, the shores by those seals not actually engaged in breeding; as well 

 as in erratic variations in proportional numbers of seals of different 

 classes at various seasons. These changes cannot be wholly attributed 

 to the operations of the sea-sealers, for though not so striking on the 

 Commander Islands as upon the Pribyloff islands, they are still observ- 

 able there, though the contingent of seals visiting these islands belong 

 as a whole to a different migration-tract, which has scarcely as yet been 

 touched by pelagic sealers. 



427. The fact that the breeding islands are now inhabited by man, is 

 in itself an anomaly, and particularly so when the protection of the 

 seals on these islands is combined with the requirements of a large 

 annual slaughter. Such circumstances need to be hedged about with 

 most rigorous precautions, in order that they may remain compatible 

 wath the continuous prosperity of seal life. More care is taken in this 

 respect on the Commander than on the Pribyloff Islands, but even there 

 improvement seems possible. On the Commander Islands, great pre- 

 cautions are observed to prevent the smell of smoke reaching the rook- 

 ery grounds, particularly early in the season, when the seals first land. 

 Coal-oil is used for cooking in the houses near the rookeries at this 

 season, and all fires are quenched when the smoke blows in the direc- 

 tion of the rookeries. Smoking is not permitted near the rookery 

 grounds, and no one is allowed in their vicinity (unless for purposes of 

 collecting a drive) but the superintendent of the island or the foreman 

 in charge of the rookeries. 



428. There are, however, in addition to actual fear and the instinct 

 of self-preservation, other causes which now render the breeding islands, 

 and particularly the Pribyloff' Islands, less continuously the resort of 

 seals than formerly. Cliief among these is the paucity of virile males, 

 which makes the islands less attractive to the females, and, besides, has 

 resulted in the existence of a large and increasing class of barren 

 females, which do not find themselves under the necessity of seeking 

 the shore. 



