108 



THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



150. This year not a single cow located permanently on tins territory, and the three 

 bulls, corresponding to the harems of last year, remained idle throughout the season. 



Another point where the shrinkage was plainly marked was at a prominent 

 observation point known as "Old John's Kock," about which during the summer of 

 1896 a large harem clustered ; the ground was fully occupied between it and the water. 

 This year the breeding seals did not reach within 100 feet of this rock at any time 

 during the season. Again the absence of breeding seals from the runways and breaks 

 in the cliffs of Lukauin rookery, another observation point frequented during both 

 seasons, was very marked. 



Similar examples might be cited from all the rookeries closely observed. Such 

 abandonment of rookery ground can have but one explanation, namely, decrease 

 iu the breeding herd. 



THE DECREASE IN DEAD PUPS. 



A striking, though indirect, evidence of decline in the breeding herd is brought 

 out by the marked decrease in the mortality among nursing pups in the breeding 

 season. On all the massed rookery portions the population of breeding seals was 

 much sparcer during the season of 1897. On the sand flat of Tolstoi and in the 

 gullies of Zapadni only a small portion of the space occupied in 1896 was occupied 

 in 1897. We are not, therefore, surprised to find the following contrast: 



De-ad pups, August 10. 



These counts were made where the death rate had to do directly with the 

 crowding of the seals on certain defective breeding spaces. 



THE INCREASED MORTALITY AMONG COWS. 



In this connection may be cited one further evidence of decline. On Reef rookery, 

 where 25 cows were found dead in 1896, 42 were found in 1897. The diminished supply 

 of cows led to fiercer struggles for their possession and consequently the death of a 

 greater number. The deaths of cows on the breeding grounds are due chiefly, if not 

 wholly, to the rough treatment by the bulls. 



THE DIMINISHED QUOTA. 



But the most clear and positive evidence of decline is found in the reduction of 

 the quota of killable seals. The sexes are equal at birth. They must be subject to 

 like natural enemies and hardship. Whatever tends to diminish the bachelor herd 

 must in like measure affect the number of .'5-year-old cows which each year take their 

 places as breeders on the rookeries. 



For twenty years after the islands came into the possession of the United States 

 it was possible to take each year a quota of approximately 100,000 young males. 

 During at least thirteen years of this period this quota could be obtained easily and 

 without exhausting the hauling grounds. This year it was more difficult to get a 

 quota of 20,000 skins than it was in 1880 to get one of 100,000. The inference is obvious. 



