ALASKAN HERD. 259 



certified to by the Chief of that Bureau. An Courses of seal- 

 ing vestsels. 



examination of the course of the British schooner 

 Ada, of Victoria., British Cohimbia, will at once 

 prove the inefficacy of a zone as a means of 

 protection, for it is there shown that within a 

 given area the nearest point of which is one 

 hundred and thirty-seven miles from the islands 

 the catch for thirteen days was seven hundred and 

 forty-seven seals, while in a given area nearly 

 one hundi-ed miles nearer the Pribilof Islands 

 the catch for eighteen days was but five hundred 

 and fifty-six; and, further, that at no time was 

 the vessel within forty-five miles of the seal rook- 

 eries.^ The course of the British schooner Alfred 

 Adams shows the nearest point to the islands 

 where seals were taken by her in 1887 was 

 about sixty miles south of St. George Island, and 

 that the majority of her catch was made one 

 hundred and twenty-five miles from the islands." 

 The schooner JEUen never came within one 

 hundred and sixteen miles of the rookeries on 

 the islands,^ and tlie schooner Annie's nearest 

 approach to the islands was seventy-seven miles, 

 her usual distance being over one hundred and 

 fifty miles therefrom.'^ Edward Shield, of Sooke 



1 Chart of course of schooner Ada, Vol. I, p. 574. 



- Chart of course of schooner Alfred Adams, Vol. I, p. 543, 



3 Cliart of course of schooner Ellen, Vol. I, p. 525. 



* Chart of course of schooner Annie, Vol. I, p. 531. 



