100 



BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



iiipiit,part ill Potropaulski (1,124), part in London, and were sliipped in the company's 

 steamer to San Francisco (see Fur Seal Arb., vii, pp. 375, 417). The total number 

 of skins shipped from the Russian seal islands from 1871 to 1895, inclusive, is, 

 therefore, 918,090. 



That this list does not give an accurate idea of the number of seals killed in each 

 l^articular year is clear from the fact that the fall catch of the year is not shipped 

 until the following summer. In some years there was no fall catch at all, in others it 

 was very considerable. Thus, for instance, in 1871, the first year of the lease of 

 Hutchinson, Kohl, Philiiipeus & Co., no less than 10,500 seals were killed on both 

 islands, of which, however, only 3,058 were shipped from Copper Island (the island 

 count, or 3,014 by the San Francisco count), while none at all were shipi)ed from 

 Bering Island. Full data of the actual number of seals kilh^d in each year are not 

 at hand, but the following table, based upon data furnished me by the late Mr. 

 G. Chernick, then station-keeper on Bering Island, may serve as an indication of the 

 diS'erence between a list of seals killed and one of skins shipped. 



Seals killed and skbiK shipped from Bering Island, 1S71-ISS2. 



It would have been interesting and instructive to have a list of skins taken from 

 each rookery for a considerable length of time, but I have been unable to obtain the 

 necessary data. The following table, however, furnishes this information for the years 

 1891 to 1895 : 



Fur-seals hilled on the Commander Islands, 1S91-1S95. 



