230 SEAL LIFK ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



Nine or ten years ago, when lying off the Pribilof Islands in the fall, 

 the young 1 seals used to play in the water about the vessels in large 

 numbers; in going to the westward in the month of May many seals 

 were always to be seen between Tnalaska and the Four Mountain islands. 

 In midsummer, when making passages between Tnalaska and the Pri- 

 bilof Islands, used to see large bodies of fur seals feeding; they were 

 invariably to be met with most numerously about <iO miles northwest 

 true from Unalaska, and from there up to and from the feeding grounds. 

 When last I visited the rookeries, three years ago, in 18S9, I noticed a 



freat shrinkage in the area covered by seals on the rookeries. (Charles 

 . Hague.) 



In 1880 and 1887 there appeared to be enough seals, and the men were 

 kept pretty steadily at work after the first few days of the season until 

 the catch was completed. Good sized skins were taken in these years, 

 and there was no trouble in getting them, but large seals grew very 

 scarce on the island in 1888, and still more so in the three following 

 years. I an sure the size of the rookeries on St. Paul Island and the 

 number of seals on them in 1891 were less than one-half their si/e and 

 number in 1S8(>. (Alex. Hansson.) 



Coincident with the increase of hunting seals in the sea there was an 

 increase in the death rate of pup seals on the rookeries; also a per- 

 ceptible diminution of female seals. As hunting increased it became 

 self evident, even to the most casual observer, that the rookeries were 

 becoming devastated. It is positively a fact that there are not near as 

 many seals occupying the rookeries now, at the present time, as there 

 were when I tirst saw the islands. The vacant spaces on the breeding 

 and hauling grounds have increased in size from year to year since 

 1884, and have been very noticeable for the last four or five years. 

 When I first went to the seal islands the seals were actually increasing 

 in numbers instead of diminishing. Two facts presented themselves 

 to me later on: Fiist, seals were arriving each year in diminished num- 

 bers; second, at the same time that the female seals were decreasing 

 in numbers the number of dead pups on the rookeries \\ere increasing. 

 The indiscriminate slaughter of seals in the water has so depleted 

 their number that the company is at present unable to get their quota 

 of skins on the island as allowed per contract with the Government, 

 and is restricted to such an insignificant number that it is not enough 

 to supply food to the native population of the islands. It is an indis- 

 putable fact that large portions of the breeding rookeries and hauling 

 grounds are bare, where but a few years ago nothing but the nappy, 

 noisy, and snarling seal families could be seen. * The driving 



rookeries also necessarily have suffered, as witness the difference in the; 

 catch, a rop from 100,000 to about 20,000 in 1890. (\V. JS. Hereford.) 



I have been employed on the seal islands since 1882, have resided 

 upon them continuously for ten years, and have a personal knowledge 

 of the seal life as it exists on the islands and in the waters surrounding 

 them. There was less than one-third the number of seals on the islands 

 last year than in 1882. The decrease in the number of seals coming to 

 the islands was first noticed and talked about two or three years after 

 I first came to live here; and since 1887 the decrease has been very 

 rapid. A careful inspection of the rookeries each returning season since 

 1887 showed that the cows were getting less and less, although it was 

 a rare thing to find a cow seal that did not have a pup at her side. 

 (Edward Hughes.) 



