382 CALLORHINUS URSINUS NORTHERN FUR SEAL. 



reiteration I have deemed it best to introduce it entire. The 

 report is addressed as a personal communication to me in re- 

 sponse to my earnest solicitation for the final results of his 

 many years of observation upon the Alaskan Fur Seal. By way 

 of explanation of the character of his report he observes : 



"The object I wish to attain in writing these notes is to i)ut 

 on record the result of my observations on the Fur Seals of 

 Saint Paul's Island during- eight years' residence as Treasury 

 agent in charge of the interest of the United States Treasury 

 Department. In order to do this some account of their habits 

 and the condition of affairs on my first arrival there seems 

 necessary as a starting point, in order that the changes that 

 have since occurred may be more clearly understood. As you 

 have had the result of my first season's observations there, [*] I 

 need not be so diffuse in my descriptions as would be otherwise 

 necessary, and you will understand that where any of my for- 

 mer statements are omitted or changed it is due to correction 

 made necessary by my longer exj)erience. I shall endeavor to 

 make this report as brief as is consistent with the successful 

 attainment of the objects before stated." 



'' History of the Fur-Seal Fishery at the Prybilov 

 Islands, Alaska, from 1869 to 1877. Preliminary and 

 General Observations. The island of Saint Paul is of 

 purely volcanic origin, consisting of a collection of elevated 

 cones and elongated ridges, connected by low valleys composed 

 of beds of marine sand that has gradually been thrown on the 

 shores by the action of the waves. This sand is of so light a 

 character that when dry it readily drifts over the hills, thereby 

 covering the lava surface. It also washes into the coves formed 

 by the projecting points of land, where it constitutes broad, 

 low beaches. The shores of the points and ridges which extend 

 out into the sea are mostly composed of irregular masses of 

 broken rock, washed by the surf and rains, so that no sand 

 accumulates on them except in an occasional crack or gully. 

 These rocky slopes are selected by the breeding Seals as the 

 places for bringing forth tlieir young, they having a repug- 

 nance to occupying the sandy spaces. 



" The male Fur Seal attains its full growth and strength at the 

 age of six or seven years, when it weighs, at the time of land- 



[* See Bull. Mus. Comp. Zoo!., a-oI. ii, 1870, pp. 89-108.] 



