SEAL LIFK ON THE PRimLnl ISLANDS. 227 



seals an- much more skittered on the breeding rookeries than ill former 

 years 1.SS4, 1SS.~>, ISSU); also that the number of seals in the water has 

 proportionately decreased, and that they have grown very much more 

 shy and difficult to approach. Without .presuming to be absolutely cor- 

 rect, would estimate the number of seals present at St. Paul Island 

 during the year 1S91 to about 10 percentof the number there in former 

 years of observation 1884, 1SS5, iss<>. (John C. Oantwell.) 



I did not notice any falling olf in the size of the rookeries from the 

 landmaiks to which they came when I first saw them during the first 

 two years I was on the island, and all agreed, in discussing the matter, 

 that the seals had never been more numerous than they w T ere; but in 

 the following years, and particularly in 1888 and 1889, no other opinion 

 was heard than that the animals had greatly diminished, and in this 

 opinion 1 fully coincided. (Henry N. Clark.) 



During the seasons of 1890 and 1891, 1 was in command of the revenue 

 cutter /I'M*//, in Bering Sea, and cruised extensively in those waters 

 around the seal islands and the Aleutian group. In the season of 1890 

 I visited the islands of St. Paul and St. George, in the months of July, 

 August, and September, and had ample and frequent opportunities of 

 observing the seal life as compared with 1870. I was astonished at the 

 reduced numbers of seals and the extent of bare groundon the rookeries 

 once teeming with seal life. In 1890 the North American Commercial 

 Company were unable to kill seals of suitable size to make their quota 

 of (>0,000 allowed by their lease, and in my opinion, had they been per- 

 mitted to take 50,000 in 1891, they could not have secured that number 

 if they had killed every bachelor seal with a merchantable skin on both 

 islands, so great was the diminution in the number of animals found 

 there. (W. C. Coulson.) 



I arrived with my command at St. Paul Island June 7, 1891. At that 

 date very few seals had arrived, and but a small number had been killed 

 for fresh food. On the 12th of June, 1891, we were at St. George Island 

 and found a few seals had been taken there, also for food, the number 

 of seals arriving not being enough to warrant the killing of any great 

 number. During that year I was at and around both these islands 

 every month from and including June until the 1st day of December 

 (excepting October), and at no time were there as many seals in sight 

 as in 1890. I assert this from actual observation, and it is my opinion 

 we will find less this year. (W. C. Coulson.) 



During my annual cruising in Bering Sea and to and*from thePribilof 

 Islands I have carefully noted the number and appearance of seals in 

 the water and on the breeding rookeries from the deck of my vessel, and 

 have also repeatedly visited the hauling grounds from year to year, and 

 it was about 1884 and 1885 that bare spots began to appear on the rook- 

 eries, so much so that myself and the other officers often spoke of it 

 and discussed the causes therefor. The decrease in number of seals 

 both on the Pribilof Islands and in the waters of Bering Sea and North 

 Pacific lias been very rapid since 1885, especially so in the last three or 

 four years, and it is my opinion that there is not now more than one- 

 third of the number of seals in these waters and on the islands that 

 there were ten years ago. (Leander Cox.) 



During my last visits to the islands I observed a very marked diminu- 

 tion in the number of seals thereon as contrasted with the herd on the 

 rookeries five or six years previously. I am familiar with the area and 

 topography of the various rookeries on the islands, and have observed 



