REPORT OF AMERICAN COMMISh^IONERS. 333 



cult. In short, one can say with much more Estimates of 



number of seals 



certainty that there are fewer seals here now exaggerated, 

 than five years ago than he could attempt a com- 

 parison by means of an actual or rather an 

 assumed cens.us. 



(l) EVIDENCE OF EYEWITNESSES. 



The universal testimony of all who saw the 

 rookeries a few years ago, and again in 1890 or 

 or 1891, is that they have suffered a great and 

 alarming decrease within the past six or seven 

 years. In the case of Northeast Point Rookery, NortheL't'' R)i u t 

 the largest single rookery known, and one ^^*^^'^^'^* 

 from the hauling grounds of which about twenty 

 to thirty-five thousand nonbreeding male fur- 

 seals were taken annually for twenty years, 

 the evidence is imequivocal and conclusive. 

 This great rookery is several miles in length, and 

 its former boundaries can be distinctly seen, as 

 will be described in detail presently. (See also 

 accompanying photograph.) The area occupied 

 by breeding seals in 1891 was a narrow strip 

 along shore, with a small area in the rear used 

 as ^hauling grounds'; while the zone of former 

 occupancy varies from one hundred to five visit of Com- 



missioners. 



hundred feet m width. Mr. C. H. Townsend, 

 resident naturalist of the United States Fish 

 Commission steamer Albatross, visited Northeast 



