190 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



with the life of the fur-seal, as it herds in countless myriads on the 

 Pribylov Islands of Alaska, is far stranger than fiction. Perhaps 

 the existing ignorance has been caused by confounding the hair- 

 seal, Phoca vitulina, and its kind, with the creature now under dis- 

 cussion. Two animals, more dissimilar in their individuality and 

 method of living, can, however, hardly be imagined, although 

 they belong to the same group, and live apparently upon the same 

 food. 



The following notes, surveys, and hypotheses herewith presented 

 are founded upon the writer's personal observations in the seal- 

 rookeries of St. Paul and St. George, during the seasons of 1872 to 

 1874 inclusive, supplemented by his confirmatory inspection made 

 in 1876. They were obtained during long days and nights of con- 

 secutive observation, from the beginning to the close of each seal- 

 season, and cover, by actual surveys, the entire ground occupied by 

 these animals. 



During the progress of heated controversies that took place 

 pending the negotiation which ended in the acquisition of Alaska 

 by our Government, frequent references were made to the fur-seal. 

 Strange to say, this animal was so vaguely known at that time, even 

 to scientific men, that it was almost without representation in any 

 of the best zoological collections of the world ; even the Smith- 

 sonian Institution did not possess a perfect skin and skeleton. The 

 writer, then as now, an associate and collaborator of that establish- 

 ment, had his curiosity very much excited by these stories ; and in 

 March, 1872, he was, by the joint action of Professor Baird and the 

 Secretary of the Treasury, enabled to visit the Pribylov Islands for 

 the purpose of studying the life and habits of the.se animals.* 



All writers on the subject of Alaskan exploration and enterprise 

 agree as to the cause of the discovery of the Pribylov Islands in the 

 last century. It was due to the feverish anxiety of a handful of 



* It was with peculiar pleasure that the writer undertook, at the sugges- 

 tion of Professor Baird, who is the honored and beloved secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, the task of examining into and reporting upon this 

 subject ; and it is also gratifying to add, that the statements of fact and the 

 hypotheses evolved therefrom by him in 1874 have, up to the present time, 

 been verified by an inflexible sequence of events on the ground itself. The 

 concurrent testimony of the numerous agents of the Treasury Department and 

 the Government generally, who have trodden in his footsteps, amply testifies 

 to their stability. 



