ESTIMATES OF NUMBER OF FUR SEALS. 77 



put upon its results. The parts of rookeries which can be counted today are -so 

 i-ircuinscrilied by cliHs and the narrowue.ss of the beaches tliat to make a (-ouiit of 

 thfin, even at the tiint- of the greatest density of tlieir population, would have been 

 but little more ditlicult tliaii it is to-day. More seals were present on a given area, 

 l)iit tli(^ area was no greater. The counting of these areas would of (tour.se not have 

 relieved the ditliculty as to a complete census; but a definite and exact enumeration, 

 even of so small and accessible a breeding ground as Sjiilki, in 1874, could not have 

 failed to dear up many of the problems which have tended to increase the confusion 

 in past coiulitions. 



EARLY ESTIMATES. 



lu considering the various estimates of earlier times, we purposely pass over that 

 of Uishoi) Veniaminof. It is too vague and unsatisfactory to be of any value. It 

 is, moreover, a prophecy of future results, based on assumed premises, rather than a 

 nieasure of actual conditions. Furthermore, it was made at a time (about 18.34) when, 

 as we know, the herd had reached from some cause or other a state of approximate 

 annihilation. 



CAPTAIN BKYAXT'S ESTIMATE. 



After the islands came into the possession of the United States the first attempt 

 to reach an estimate of the number of seals was made by Capt. Charles Bryant, agent 

 of the Government, sent in l.S<>'.» to investigate the condition of tiie herd. Captain 

 Bryant sums up his method of enumeration as follows:' 



There are at least IL' miles of shore line on the island of St. Paul orcuijied by the seals as 

 breeding grounds, with the average width of 1.5 roils. There being about twenty seals to the square 

 rod, gives 1,152,000 as thi- whole number of breeding males and females. Deducting one-tenth for 

 males leaves l,037,8fKi 1 needing females. 



He estimates the number of seals on St. George at one-half the number on St. 

 Paul. He further makes a rough estimate of the uuinber of nonbreeding males, but 

 he does not work it out or give a total. In comparing the estimate of Captain Bryant 

 with the subsequent estimate of Mr. Elliott it must be noted that the young are not 

 included, 



THE FIRST ACi;EA(fE ENUMERATION. 



This estimate is crude both in its methods and in its results, but it certainly 

 contains the germ of all subsequent acreage estimates of the seals. It was made and 

 its results were i)ublished at least two years before the work of Mr. Elliott, which 

 was begun in 1S72, Whatever credit, therefore, belongs to the invention and execution 

 of this method of arriving at the population of the rookeries must rest with Captain 

 Bryant. His enumeration, though but a I'ough ap])roximation, and probabl^^ .so 

 considered by him, brought for the first time the fur-seal herd within the range of a 

 numerical estimate. 



ELLIDTT.S ESTIMATE OF 1ST2-1S7+. 



The next attempt at enumeration was made in 1872-1874 by Heni-y W. Elliott, 

 special agent sent by the United States Treasury Department to investigate the con- 

 dition of the herd. He followed the same general method inaugurated by Captain 



Hull. Mus. Conip. Zool., 1870, Vol. II, p. 106. 



