SUBJECTS FOR INVESTIGATION. 19 



7. The breeding habits of the seals, with special reference to the age at which the females begin 

 or cease to breed, and the frequency of the breeding, whether annually or at longer intervals. 



8. The condition of female seals taken at sea, as to nursing and pregnancy. 



9. The distance which the seA'eral classes of seals go from the islands and the directions which 

 they take in search of food or rest at different times during the season. 



10. The actual decrease, if any, in the number of seals in each class 011 the Pribilof Islands 

 which has occurred during the past year, and also since the year 1890, and since the year 1870. A 

 careful census of the rookeries should be taken this season for comparison with the enumeration 

 made in 1895 and previous years. 



11. An examination of the question as to the character of the food of fur seals. 



12. Whether the Pribilof Island herd of fur seals intermingle with the Asiatic herds of the 

 Commander or Kuril islands. 



13. Whether nursing seals nurse other than their own pups on the islands. 



THE INVESTIGATIONS. 



Acting under these instructions the commission of investigation have made a 

 detailed inspection and study of the habits, condition, and needs of the Pribilof 

 Islands herd, with a comprehensive and almost equally exhaustive study of the herds 

 of the Commander and Kuril islands. The main results of our investigations for the 

 season of 1896 have already been published by the Treasury Department in the form 

 of a preliminary report.* 



The work during the season of 1896 was sufficient to prove the depleted condition 

 of the herd and to point out the cause of its threatened destruction. It, however, 

 showed clearly that all preceding calculations as to the number of seals resorting to 

 the Pribilof Islands were useless for purposes of comparison, being grossly exaggerated 

 in the early years of American control, and as largely underestimated in the later years 

 through a misapprehension of the actual conditions of rookery life. It therefore 

 became impossible to form an accurate estimate of the relative conditions of "the 

 breeding herd or of the rate of its decline. The work of investigation was therefore 

 continued during the season of 1897, and its supplemental results have been embodied 

 in condensed form in a second preliminary report! which has recently been published 

 by the Treasury Department. It now remains for us to bring into the shape of a 

 final report the completed results of our labors. In accordance with the broad scope 

 of our instructions we have endeavored, so far as opportunity afforded, to consider 

 "all important questions relating to the natural history of the seals, both at sea and 

 on the islands," and the work has therefore become very voluminous. 



THE REPORT. 



This report naturally falls into four parts or divisions. In Part I the main 

 phases of the fur-seal controversy have been taken up and discussed at length, such 

 historical matters as seem necessary for a clear understanding of the matter being 

 added. In this general discussion the results of more detailed studies on special 

 topics, which appear in Part III, are freely used and the original studies referred to 

 for more complete information. Part I, therefore, becomes a complete report in itself 

 of the investigation so far as the general condition, needs, and possibilities of the 

 Pribilof Islands herd of fur seal are concerned. 



1 Observations on the Fur Seals of the Pribilof Islands, Jordan, 1896. 



t Second Preliminary Report of the Bering Sea Fur-Seal Investigations, Jordan, 1897. 



