1 



baseline and a/.iiimtli compass, in IMH) with a tine prismatic compass, and in 1*7 I with tin 

 telp of trained topographer, Lieuteaanl Maypard. "There i- IMP more difficulty," he 



says (p. 17), ' in surveying these --i-al margins during this week or ten days (10 '20) in .Fulv 

 than then- is in drawing sights along and around tin- curbs of a stone fence surroundii 

 Held." Hi- tells us that in 1890 there wen 0,000, ud in i^7J , -17,000 seal- ,, Lagoon 



Rookery ; and as In- estimate- tlii> number on h-s usual computation of _' s<juarc feet toi 

 each, it tollous that lie .'- ascribing to tint rookerv an area of 18,000 and 74,000 square 

 feet n -pcctivcly in the -aid \ear-. Yet Mosrs. True and Tuwnseiid give t lie occupied 

 area on Lagoon Rookery in l^'.t.". as V_YJ | | square feet, l| time- what .Mr. Klliott asserted 

 five year- lie 



For l.iikamion and Ketavie lie gives tin- measurement in 1890 as 1 l.">,O.~>ii and .~>l>,000 

 respectively, a total of :jdl ,<>.~>i ' : it wa-. 'j'21 ).:'.!'. sqe.uv tcet by Messrs. True and 

 Tounseiid's measurement- live yeai- later. 



Por Tolstoi be givei i2i. s "n -quan- feet in 1890; Mewn. Trae and Towmeod give 



:M',00 in 1S)'). For the entire Maud of St. I'aul he uive- 1 ,7 ")7.1B4 square feet in 1890; 

 Messrs. I .md Towuseud -ivc '^.'2()'2.i)~)! in iN'J.'i. 



The di-esepancies on St. George are equally surprising. \\> may expiv-.- them he-t 

 in a tabular form : 



Leaving aside for the moment the statements whose extravagance, 1 believe, we have 

 adequately demonstrated, we may fall back on the plain and simple way of estimating the 

 actual yield of the rookeries and the decrease of their productiveness; that is to sav, we 

 may >et tiu- '.n,000 skins taken this year against the 100,000 that were u;ot with neither 

 le-,s nor more difficulty (Cf., Jordan, Preliminary Report, p. 22) in the plenitude of the 

 supply. We should then have to admit that the herd was now something less than 

 one-third of \\hat it was twenty years ago. Even in this admission \\c admit too much, 

 for, apart irom other corrections that might be suggested, we should surely add for the 

 purpose of such a comparison to the 30,000 taken on the islands the number of males 

 taken in the sea, but this, for lack of better knowledge of the proportion of each sex and 

 age in the pelagic catch, we cannot do. But if we fall bank on l)r. Jordan, we find him 

 placini: (/or. rit.) the number of breeding female- in 18SO at, "at least," lour times as 

 many as in 139-5. It is not worth arguing whether we should say three times rather than 

 four, tor either number is vastly different from those which we have been of late 

 accustomed to hear maintained and reiterated. 



In the preceding account I have not attempted to prove that there has been n<> 



decrea-e. m nerai or local, in recent years, but I have sought to show how inadequate and 



conflicting i> Ihe evidence at hand to prove such a decrease. The matter with which we 



are immediately concerned, and as to which we have most evidence at hand, is the 



relative state of the rookeries in 180-3 and 1- V !)'J. ll;;d the decrease in the rookeries been 



.ireat and evident as it wa- reported to be up to 1895, the next twelve months should 



Mirely have shown -un- -till more unequivocal of continued impoverishment of the 



impoverished -tock. The photographs show us time after time, with very few exception-. 



an identical record. The harems on St. George weiv counted in both year> by the same 



gentlemen, and all the rookeries but one *ho\\ a iarnc incica-c in the latter year. In the 



.only iii>taiice .n St. Pf.ul Island where the cow> were actually counted in both \eai-. 



viz.', on the Lagoon, they were one-sixth more numerous when counted in 18!'i; ami 



[313 | F 



