334 CALLORHINUS URSINUS NORTHERN FUR SEAL. 



dred and sixty-three thousand.* Although these islands form 

 by far their most populous resorts, they are said to occur in 

 considerable numbers on some of the islands to the northward, 

 but I am unable to find definite statements as to their numbers 

 or favorite stations. Mr. Elliott, after examining Saint Mathew's 

 and Saint Lawrence Islands, became convinced that they were 

 not only not resorted to as breeding stations by the Fur Seals, 

 but that these islands, by their constitution and climatic condi- 

 tions, were unsuitable for this purpose, and adds, " it may be 

 safely said that no land of ours in the north is adapted to the 

 wants of that animal, except that of Saint Paul and Saint 

 George."t Mr. W. H. Dall states that " They have never been 

 found in Bering Strait, or within three hundred miles of it.^f In 

 early times these animals are well known to have been abundant 

 on Behring's and Copper Islands. According to Kraschenini- 

 kow, they were so numerous upon Behring's Island about the 

 middle of the last century as to cover the whole southern shore 

 of th*e island. Their range on the Asiatic coast is given by Stel- 

 ler and others as extending southward along the Kamtschatkan 

 coast to the Kurile Islands. Krascheninikow states that they 



* As of interest in the present connection, I quote the following from Darn- 

 pier respecting the abundance of the Southern Fur Seal at the Island of 

 Juan Fernandez, two hundred years ago, or about a century before the 

 beginning of the Seal slaughter there, which in less than a generation nearly 

 exterminated the species at that locality. Dampier and his party spent 

 iifteen days on this island in the year 1683. He says: "Seals swarm as 

 thick about this Island [" of John Fernando," as he terms it, ] as if they had 

 no other place in the World to live in ; for there is not a Bay nor Rock that 

 one can get ashoar on, but is full of them. . . . These at John Fernan- 

 do's have fine thick short Furr ; the like I have not taken notice of any where 

 but in these Seas. Here are always thousands, I might say possibly millions 

 of them, either sitting on the Bays, or going and coming in the Sea round the 

 Island, which is covered with them (as they lie at the top of the Water play- 

 ing and sunning themselves) for a mile or two from the shore. When they 

 come out of the Sea they bleat like Sheep for their young ; and though they 

 pass through hundreds-of others young ones before they come to their own, 

 yet they will not suffer any of them to suck. The young ones are like 

 Puppies, and lie much ashore, but when beaten by any of us, they, as well 

 as the old ones, will make towards the Sea, and swim very swift and 

 nimble ; tho' on shore they lie very sluggishly, and will not go out of our 

 way unless we beat them, but snap at us. A blow on the Nose soon kills 

 them. Large Ships might here load themselves with Seals Skins and Trane- 

 oyl; for they are extraordinary fat." A New Voyage Round the World, " fifth 

 edition, corrected," 1703, vol. i, pp. 88, 90. 



t Cond. of Aff. in Alaska, pp. 217, 224. 



t Alaska and its Resources, p. 493. 



