TIIK FCi; SKAL INDUSTRY' OP ALASKA. 



351 



of 100,000 will be seen before you at English Bay, sweeping hither and surging thither 

 over the polished surface which they have worn with their restless llippers, tracing and 

 retracing their tireless inarches; then, to-morrow, if the weather is rainy or hot. only a few desul- 

 tory thousands will be seen over this same area whereon you observed swarming myriads yesterday : 

 consequently the amount of ground occupied by the " holluschickie" is vastly in, excess of what 





^ HIGH P |_ A T f. A U , H ,^ V 



GREAT EASTERN 



Sca,le: 



they would require did they conform to the same law of distribution observed by the breeding 

 seals ; and this foundation is therefore wholly untenable for any such definite basis and satisfactory 

 conclusion as is that which I have surveyed on the rookeries. Hence, in giving an estimate of the 

 aggregate number of "holluschickie" or non-breeding seals, on the Pribylov Islands, embracing 

 as it does all the males under six or seven years of age and all the yearling females, it must, 

 necessarily, be a simple opinion of mine founded upon nothing better than my individual judgment. 

 This is my conclusion : 



The non-breeding seals seem nearly equal in number to that of the adult breeding-seals; but 

 without putting them down at a figure quite so high, I may safely say that the sum total of 

 1,500,000 in round numbers is a fair enumeration, and quite within bonds of fact. This makes the 

 grand sum total, of the fur-seal life on the Pribylov Islands, over 4,700,000. 



5. THE INCREASE OB DIMINUTION OF THE SEAL-LIFE, PAST, PRESENT, AND 



PROSPECTIVE. 



One stereotyped question has been addressed to me universally by my friends since my return, 

 first in 1873, from the seal islands. The query is: "At the present rate of killing the seals, it will 

 not be long ere they are exterminated; how much longer will they last?" My answer is now as 

 it was then, "Provided matters are conducted on the seal islands in the future as they are to-day, 

 100,000 male seals under the age of five years and over one may be safely taken every year from 

 the Pribylov Islands, without the slightest inj'iry to the regular birth-rates, or natural increase 



