168 DECREASE OF THE ALASKAN SEAL HERD. 



On Pribiiof Is- vGiy iioticeable.^ Comniander Turner, Royal 

 Navy, ill a dispatch to Rear-Admiral Hotliam, 

 dated on the Nym/pMe at Esquimault, October 8, 

 1891, states that "on the largest rookery, a great 

 tract of land, which a few years ago had been 

 covered with seals, and the bowlders and rocks 

 which had been worn smooth by them, was 

 now totally deserted, and no increase had been 

 observed on other rookeries to compensate for 

 this deficiency." ^ 



How great has been the decrease in the num- 

 ber of seals is most plainly shown by the charts 

 marked A to K. The areas covered by breed- 

 ing seals in 1891, which were carefully platted 

 by the Government surveyor from observations 

 and measurements made by him during his sur- 

 vey, should be compared with the lines of increase 

 heretofore mentioned.^ M. C. Erskine, a sea cap- 

 tain of twenty-four years' experience in Alaskan 

 waters, speaks of the scarcity of seals in Bering 

 Sea in 1890 as compared with the numbers seen 

 in former years.^ Treasury Agent Goff, who was 

 in charge of the islands in 1889 and 1890, and 

 who had reported the decrease of seals to the 

 Government, in consequence of which report the 



'VoLII,p.415. 



2 British Blue Book, U. S. No. 3 (1892) C-6G35, p. 113. 



3^1)i<t', p. 165. 



^ Vol. II, p. 422. 



