NINTH ANNUAL REPORT. HI 



island less than one mile in length. The following data show 

 the yield of skins from Lobos Island during the past three years : 

 1902, 12,922; 1903, 10,994; 1904, 8,349. 



It is reported that the Lobos seals are now menaced by pelagic 

 sealers, and that a vessel was seized during 1904 bv the Govern- 

 ment of Uruguay. 



In 1888, when in the Straits of Magellan, the writer found the 

 fur-seal herds of that region nearly exterminated bv the hunters 

 then working among the Fuegian islands. It is doubtful if they 

 have had any chance to increase since then. 



Okhotsk Seal. — The history of Robbin Island, in the Okhotsk 

 Sea, is especially interesting in this connection. This island is 

 about 600 yards in length and less than 100 yards in width, and 

 yet incomplete records show that more than 60,000 seals have 

 been taken there by raiders since 1870. A remnant of this herd 

 has remained to annually repopulate the rookery, which at the 

 present time contains little more than 1,000 seals, and is pro- 

 tected by the Russian Government. 



The scattered fur-seal rookeries in the chain of volcanic islands 

 stretching northward from Japan, known as the Kurils, have 

 been destroyed by raiders during recent years. The history of 

 the extermination of these seals, as furnished to the writer by 

 men who engaged in the slaughter, is exceedingly interesting. 

 Notwithstanding the fact that raids were made year after year, 

 the scattered remnants of the herds still clung to their old breed- 

 ing grounds. The incomplete records at hand show that more 

 than 25,000 seals were taken from the Kuril Islands by raiders 

 since 1880. These rookeries were visited by the U. S. S. Albatross 

 in 1897, and all the rookeries were found to have been wiped out 

 with the exception of one, upon which there were about 100 

 seals remaining. It is believed that these will be protected by 

 Japan, to which country they belong. The seal inhabiting Rob- 

 bin Island and the Kuril Archipelago is now known as Callorliiints 

 curilensis. 



Pribilof mid Coimitaiidcr Seals. — The only important strong- 

 holds of the diminishing northern fur seals remaining to-day are 

 the Pribilof and Commander islands, in Bering Sea. The United 

 States and Russian governments, to which these islands belong 

 respectively, have for many years endeavored to save from ruin 

 the fur-seal fisheries connected with them. The species estab- 

 lished on the Commander Islands is Callorliiints itrsiiiKS. while 

 that breeding on the Pribilof s is Callorhinus alascanns. Although 

 these two species breed upon islands lying in the same latitude and 



