108 BULLLTIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



To sliow the cliauges from 1881! to 1895, 1 submit some illustratious and two maps, 

 which ueed some words of explauatiou.' 



The drawing' submitted (](I. 20) is taken from a photograph of a jjem-il sketch made 

 by me July 30, 1881'. Mr. Grebnitski, in going to St. Petersburg in the autumn of 1882, 

 was anxious to h.ive it accompany Ids report, and upou his arrival at San Francisco 

 had a photographic copy made, which he sent me, and which is here reproduced. Like 

 most drawings, the vertical dimensions are exaggerated, but on the whole it gives a 

 fairly accurate representation of the rookery. The inner edge of the breeding-grounds 

 are obscured by an immense number of bachelors on the " parade " or " sands," but 

 the sketch shows pretty conclusively that the siilient features are yet maintained. 

 The photograph by Yoloshinof (pi. 27«), taken in 1885, unfortunately is not very clear, 

 but there is enough iu it to show that the breeding area, so far as it can be seen from 

 the direction of the salt-house, has shrunk comparatively little. My ijhotograjihs 

 (pi. 21) were taken from practically the same standpoint as the sketch and Yolos- 

 hiuof's photograph, and they aftbrd as good a comparison as can be expected from 

 photographs taken at such a distance. Those taken from a somewhat different stand- 

 point, viz, from the driveway (pi. 22), give perhaps a better idea of the rookery, 

 small as they are. 



The map representing the seal-grounds in 1883 (pi. 7) was sketched on August 

 21, and shows the distribution of the seals on that date — hence the lack of definiteness 

 to the areas of i-ed and the extension of the bachelor seals into the grass-covered area. 

 The map showing the location of the seals in 1895 (pi. 8), however, represents the seals 

 as they were located July 17 and 19. 



At Kixhotvhnaya I found the same state of affairs as on the Eeef, only that the 

 patch had shrunk still more and the seals apparently covered the ground less densely 

 than on the Eeef. This last observation, however, is not to be relied upon, as the 

 breeding-ground can be looked down upon from a much greater elevation (70 feet), 

 though at a greater distance. Bachelor seals in small numbers hauled out on the 

 outer rocks and in among the females in the rear of the rookery, but the center of the 

 "parade" ground was deserted all summer, and never a seal entered the posterior 

 third of the latter, now covered with a scanty growth of tufted grass. 



It was at once apparent that there was a low percentage of bttUs on both look- 

 eries, though at the Reef I afterwards found that the condition was not quite so bad 

 as I first was led to believe. Upon my third visit to the rookery, when the wind was 

 favorable for approaching it from the west side, I discovered that there were a good 

 many more bulls proportionately to the females on that side than on the eastern half, 

 which is the one first reached and most commonly seen. The formation of the ground 

 made it utterly impossible to make a reliable estimate of the average number of females 

 to each bull by counting a sufficient number of harems. At Kishotchnaya, however, 

 the opportunities were more favorable, and on July 16 I averaged at the south end of 



'Dr. Rluiiin in his recent report (Promysl. Bog. Kam. Sakh. Komanil. Ostr.) has been singularly 

 unfortunate iu misiindcrstandint; an old uiap by Mr. (JrebnitsUi with regard to the exteut of the 

 rookeries on Bering Island. Iu the legend on plate 7 the dotted areas are represented as lieiug the 

 "rookeries according to Grebnitski.'' 1 have the original luiip, the so-called " Sandiuan-llrebnitski'' 

 map, before me, and can assert ])ositively that (irebnitski never meant to represent the rookeries by 

 the dotted areas, which are nothing else but the reefs snrrounding the island. Of conr,se Grebnitski 

 did not intend to convey the idea that more than 00 miles, or half the entire coast line of Bering Island, 

 were occupied by the rookeries. 



