84 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



so rnllilessly hunted and harassed, shortly after Steller's obaervations in 1742, then they soon repaired, 

 or ratlier most of the survivors did, to the shelter and isolation of the Pribylov group, which was 

 wholly unknown to man. 



As will be shown in the historical part of this report (p. 00), the seals, as a mat- 

 ter of fact, never fled from the islands of Rering and Copper, and Elliott's statement 

 rests on a iiiisappreliension. In the very year 17.S0, when I'ribylof tirst discovertul the 

 islands which now bear his name, there returned to Kamchatka two vessels, loaded 

 with fnr-seal skins which could oidy liave been taken on the Commander Islands, 

 viz, one belonging to Protas.sof, "the cargo consisting chiefly of fur-seals," and one 

 belonging to 8helikof, with no less than 18,000 seal skins. Pribylof, with his cargo 

 of over 31,000 seals from the new islands, did not return until .several years later. 



The other e.xplanation offered by some of those who ascribe the decrea.se of the 

 seals on the rookeries to tlie interference by the sealing at sea, rests on an assumption 

 that the sealers, by stationing themselves at intervals across the path of the .seals on 

 their northward migration, actually cut the seals oft" from the islands, thus forcing them 

 to go elsewhere, or, in the case of those finally reaching the islands, materially delaying 

 them on the way. It would seem that to anyone who has seen the way in which 

 seals travel during their nugrations it would be plain that it would be impossible for 

 many times the number of sealing schooners now in existence to eft'ectually block the 

 progress of the migrating herds. It may well be that the i)ositions of the .schooners 

 if i)lotted on the charts would show them to thus stretch across the path of the seals 

 (it has been so asserted in Russian reports), and the large marks on the chart may 

 well convey such an impression, but at sea the thing is quite different.' 



This last explanation hints at the other alleged change in the habits of the seal, 

 viz, an increasing lateness in the arrival of the bulk of the .seals and a corresponding 

 lateness in many of the phenomena of seal life on the islands. It is utterly incon- 

 ceivable, however, that the sealers can even delay the bulk of the migrating herds 

 materially, and the explanation, therefore, would not explain, even if the allegations 

 of the increasing lateness of the phenomena alluded to could be substantiated, and in 

 my opinion they can not. 



A glance at the table of .seals killed on North Rookery, Bering Island, during the 

 season of 1805 (p. 110) shows that nearly one-third of the total number of skins was 

 obtained between the 22d of August and the 13th of September (the skins being 

 shipped September IG) ; in other words, during 180.5 nearly one-third of the skins was 

 taken after the time when the skins were usually shipped. Thus, in 1891 the skins 

 were .shipped August 27 ; in 1893, August 22; in 1892, Augu.st 24. The earlier records 

 to which I have had access are rather incomplete, but from 1877 to 1882 the seal skins 

 were shijiped from the North Rookery, Bering Island, on the following dates: 



1877 Aug. 26 I 18S0. 



1878 Aug. 16 1881. 



1879 Aug. 29 I 1882. 



It will be seen that even in the palmiest days of the rookeries, long before the 

 advent of the pelagic sealers, the shipping dates do not differ materially from those 



' For the contemplation of those who heliove in the schooners being .able to cordon the sea so :is 

 to actually intercepi he seals, I submit the following: In the latter part of .Inly, 1892, to the end "T 

 August, numerous schooners killed seals south of Copper Island. If the position of the daily catches 

 of i-iglit of them be plotted down on a chart, it will be seen that they covircd iintty evenly an area 

 of l.'f,000 .square nautical miles (roughly speaking). As their combined catch amounted to about 4,000 

 skius, it is plain that they secured about one seal on every 3 siiuare miles (see map, pi. 1). 



