226 SEAL LIFE ON THE PKIBILOF ISLANDS. 



From 1870 to 1884 the seals were swarming on the hauling grounds 

 and the rookeries, and for many years they spread out more and more. 

 All of a sudden, in 1884, we noticed there was not so many seals, and 

 they have been decreasing very rapidly ever since. (KerrickArtomanoff.) 



There are not nearly as many seals on the coast as there were two or 

 three years ago. (Johnny Barouovitch.) 



There are certain physical as well as historical sources of information 

 upon the island from which the relation of the present to the past con- 

 dition of the rookeries can be very clearly made out. 



(1) Not only upon, but immediately to the rear of, the area at present 

 occupied by the breeding seals occur fragments of basalt whose angles 

 have been rounded and polished by the flippers of seals. Among these 

 latter rocks grass is found growing to an extent proportionate to their 

 distances from the present breeding grounds, and further, the soil 

 shows no recent disturbance by the seals. This rounding of the bowl- 

 ders of the abandoned areas was not due to the impingement of sand 

 driven by the wind. No geologist would be willing to risk his reputa- 

 tion by asserting that this rounding came from any such agency. The 

 distinction between the result of sand-blast action and seals' flippers 

 is very marked. 



(2) A careful examination among the roots of the grass will often 

 show the former presence of seal by the peculiar appearance of the soil, 

 due to the excrementa of the seal and the occurrence of a thin mat of 

 seal hair. The attention of Dr. George M. Dawson was called to such 

 a felt of hair upon the summit of Hutehiuson Hill, and both he and 

 Dr. C. Hart Merriam collected specimens of it from among the grass 

 roots at that locality. 



(3) At the rear of the rookeries there is usually an area of mixed 

 vegetation an area the boundary of which is sharply defined, and 

 between which and the present breeding grounds occurs a zone of 

 grass of only a single variety. In the immediate vicinity of the pres 

 ent breeding grounds only scanty bunches are to be seen. These 

 gradually coalesce as the line of mixed vegetation is approached. The 

 explanation of this is that the seals were formerly so abundant as to 

 destroy the normal mixed vegetation at the rear of the breeding 

 grounds, and that the decrease of the seals has been followed by the 

 encroachment of the uniform variety of grass. 



(4) The statements made to me by competent observers who have 

 lived upon the islands for years all agree that the shrinkage in the 

 breeding area has been rapid during the past five or six years. 



After observing the habits of seals for a season, 1 unhesiTatingly 

 assert that to satisfactorily account for the disturbance to vegetable 

 life over areas whose extent is visible even to the most careless and 

 prejudiced of observers, would require the presence of from two to three 

 times the amount of seal life which is now to be found upon the islands. 

 That there has been enormous decrease in the seals there can be no ques- 

 tion. (J. Stanley-Brown.) 



Have observed carefully the areas occupied by the seals on the rook- 

 eries and hauling-out grounds, especially at Northeast Point and the 

 Beef, on St. Paul Island, in 1884, 1885, 1886, and 1891, and on both rook- 

 eries the areas formerly occupied by seals have greatly decreased, so 

 much so that at first appearance it seemed, in 1891, as if the hauling- 

 out grounds had been entirely deserted. Subsequent examination dis- 

 closed the fact that this was not strictly true, there still being a small 

 number of male seals left on the grounds. Have also observed that the 



