58 



BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



witli bill seaut danger of beiug cai)tured. lu October, 1891, however, Captain Braudt, 

 commanding the Aleut, upon returning to the island unexpectedly, captured two 

 schooners, the Arctic and the Mi/sfery, both fitted out in Yokohama but flying the 

 British flag and having 1,500 seal skins on board (Brit. Behring Sea Comm. lie.p., p. 89). 



The latest raid on liobbeu Island was undertaken last autumn. On October 29, 

 1895, the British schooner Saipan, sailing from Yokohama early in October, ostensibly 

 on a shark- fishing expedition, landed 17 of her crew on Robben Island. She sailed 

 away, promising to return in eigiit days. In tlie meantime the Russian transport 

 Yaknt, which did patrol duty around the (Jomnuinder Islands during the summer, 

 arrived and found tlie 17 men with a great number of slaughtered seals. Tliey were 

 arrested and brought to Vladivostok, where she arrived about November (I. The 

 schooner returned to the island too late, and thus escaped capture. 



In addition, there is no doubt that the liobben Island herd must have suffered 

 somewhat from pelagic sealing jiroper, though the extent can not be known. 



Capt. D. Griwnberg, of the Bobrilc, in 1S95 reported that females were present in 

 fair numbers, and that the proportion of bulls to females was about 1 in 40. The 

 weight of the skins taken was good, and yearlings were quite scarce. He also men- 

 tioned having observed an unusual number of dead pups. 



Numher of skins taken hij the lessees of Itohhen Island from 1.S71 to 1S')5. 



3.-0THER ISLANDS. 



Omitting all references to breeding rookeries on the mainland of Kamchatka as 

 ba.sed upon hearsay, and in all probability resting on misidentiflcation of young sea- 

 lions, it may be well in the present work to mention those localities in the Okhotsk 

 Sea, V>esides Eobben Island, where seals are said to haul out to breed. 



ST. lONA ISLAND. 



This is a small island, about 2 miles in circumference, situated in 56° 25' north 

 latitude and IIS'^ 10' east longitude, 120 miles north of the northern extremity of 

 Sakhalin Island and a little more than 150 miles east of Port Ayan. It is said to be 

 about 12 feet high and to have a crowd of detached rocks lying ofi' its west side.' 



' "St. lona Islnnil, iu lat. '>6° 22A' N., long. 143° 15J' E., is merely a b.-ire rock, about 2 miles in 

 circumference and 1,200 feet high, surrounded on all sides, except the west, by detached rocks, against 

 which the waves beat with great violence, and which ]ir(il)a)>ly extend a coTisidcralde distance under 

 water. With the island bearing north, distant 12 miles, KruKtnstern Imd 1". fathoms water, but when 

 it bore west, about 10 miles, no bottom could be obtained with 120 fathoms '' (China Sea Directory, iv, 

 1884, p. 178). 



