RECENT CHANGES IN HABITS AND NUMBERS, ETC. 389 



time up to the transfer of tlie islands to the United States great 

 care was given to their increase, at which time were established 

 the methods in practice when I arrived on the island in 1869, 

 and which still continue with little modification. The islands 

 were then in charge of Kazean Shisenekoff, a Creole born on 

 the island and educated in the school at Sitka. He appears to 

 have been a man of great natural ability. He left a family of 

 sons, part of whom inherit their father's talent, the oldest one? 

 being pontenori or arch-priest for the diocese of the Territory. 

 This Kazean governed the islands twenty-seven years, and his 

 memory is revered by the people like that of a saint. He kept 

 a record in manuscript of his observations and left it on the 

 island at his death, but before my arrival there it had been 

 used to paste over the cracks in the ceiling of the hut of one 

 of the natives and so was lost. During the administration of 

 this able governor these nurseries of the Seals had been de- 

 veloped from almost nothing to the condition in which they 

 were at the transfer of the islands to the United States. For 

 many years they were able to kill only a small number, but the 

 Seals gradually increased so that they killed as many as 40,000 

 in one year. The result of this judicious system was seen in 

 the condition of affairs in the spring of 1867, when, knowing 

 the islands were to be surrendered to the United States, the 

 Eussians took all the Seals they could, amounting to 75,000. 

 During the season of 1868, when there was no legal protection 

 for the Seals, 250,000 were taken. 



" This brings us to the year of 1869, the date of my first visit; 

 and on that year's observation is based the foregoing descrip- 

 tion of the habits of the Seals. One of the first objects to be 

 attained was an approximate determination, at least, of the 

 number of Seals frequenting the islands ; but to count them 

 was impossible. After the rookeries were filled I discovered 

 that on the breeding-grounds there were no open spaces ; that, 

 .as a rule, they began to fill at the water-line and extended no 

 further back than they could occupy in a compact body. Mak- 

 ing as careful a calculation as possible of the space occupied, 

 and ascertaining the average number to the square rod, I found 

 that this gave the astonishing number of 1,130,000 for the breed- 

 ing Seals alone. The other or non-breeding Seals that is, the 

 males not on the breeding-grounds were at that time occupying 

 the upland in the rear of the females in groups of from five or 

 ,six hundred to as many thousands. These being more restless 



