GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



333 



shore which are rarely visited by boats.* In his MS. report just 

 received he states that a half-breed hunter told him that he 

 found in summer " on Queen Charlotte's Island, groups of these 

 animals consisting of two or more beach-masters with a dozen 

 or more females and pups, but no half-grown males." 



As is well known, the Prybilov or so-caUed " Fur Seal Isl- 

 ands," off the coast of Alaska, form the great breeding-ground 

 of the Fur Seals, to which hundreds of thousands annually 

 resort to bring forth their young. The Prybilov Group con- 

 sists of four small islands, known respectively as Saint Paul's, 

 Saint George's, Otter, and Walrus Islands. The two last named 

 are of small size, and are not used as breeding-grounds by the 

 Seals, although Otter Island is visited by a large number of" non- 

 breeding Seals." Saint Paul's Island is the largest, containing 

 an area of about 33 square mUes, and having a coast-line of 

 about forty-two miles, nearly one-half of which is sand-beach. 

 Of this, sixteen and a half miles, according to Mr. Elliott, are 

 occupied in the breeding-season by the Fur Seals. Saint 

 George's Island is somewhat smaller, with only twenty-nine 

 miles of shore-line. It presents a bold coast, a grand wall of 

 basalt extending continuously for ten miles, with no passage- 

 way from the sea. It has, in aU, less than a mile of sand-beach, 

 and only two and a quarter miles of eligible landing grounds^ 

 for the Seals. 



A few old male Fur Seals are said to make their appearance 

 at the rookeries on these islands between the 1st and 15th of 

 May, they acting, as it were, the part of pioneers, since their 

 number is not much increased before the first of June. At 

 about this date, and with the setting in of the humid, foggy 

 weather of summer, the male Seals begin to land by " hundreds 

 and thousands," to await the arrival of the females, which do 

 not appear before about July first. The young are born soon 

 after, and toward the last of this month the rookeries begin to> 

 lose their compactness and definite boundaries, but they are 

 not fully broken up till about the middle of September. The 

 Seals begin to leave the islands about the end of October, the 

 greater x)roportion departing in November, while some remain 

 till the end of the following month, and even later. 



The number of Fur Seals i)resent on Saint Paul's Island in 

 July, 1872, was estimated by Mr. Elliott to exceed three million^ 

 and on Saint George's Island in July, 1873, at about one hun- 



* BuU. Mus. Comp. Zool., ii, p. 88. 



