FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 11 



for 1880, above cited, of the Treasury agent in charge, came into tlie 

 Tieasmy Dei)artmeiit, not a suggestion ever bad been made in official 

 writing, from 1872-1874, down to that time, of the slightest prospect 

 even, of the amazing diminution of seal life which is now so painfully 

 apparent. 



Naturally enough, being so long away from the field, on reading Mr. 

 Charles J. (iofl's report for the season's work of 1889, I at once jumped 

 to the conclusion 'that the pelagic sealing, the poaching of 1886-1889, 

 was the sole cause for that shrinkage which he declared manifest on 

 those rookeries and hauling grounds of the Pribilov Islands — such a 

 great slirinUage as to warrant him in the declaration which he makes 

 in tnat rei)ort that ne believes that not over 60,000 young male seals 

 can be secured here in 1890, and if more can be, that they should not be 

 taken 



Still, charging it in this manner all to the pelagic killing was not 

 quite satisfactory to my mind. I could figure out from the known 

 numbei of skins which these hunters had j)laced on the market, a 

 statement of the loss and damage to the rookeries, to the females and 

 young, born and unborn: for that is the class from which the pelagic 

 hunter secures at least 85 per cent of liis catch: I was prepared to hnd 

 by these figures that the breeding grounds had lost heavily; but that 

 did not even satisfy me as to his statemeut, which came so suddenly 

 in 188!>, that little more than half of the established annual quota of 

 100,000 holluschickie sintable foi killing could or should be secured here 

 iu 1890; for, great as my estimated shrinkage on the breeding grounds 

 was due to the pelagic work, yet that would not, could not, explain 

 to mj mind the ninefold greater shrinkage of that supply from the 

 hauling grounds which must exist, or else 60,01J0 young males might 

 be easily taken, judging from my notes of such work in 1872. There- 

 fore, i landed here very much confused in thought as to what I should 

 observe. 



1 began at once, and finished by the 9th of June, an entire new topo- 

 graphical survey and triangulation of the landed area of the seven 

 rookeries of St. Paul Island : and those of St, (leorge Island on the 19th 

 and 20th of July : so as to have these charts ready for instant use when 

 the time came in which to observe the full form and number of the 

 breeding seals as they laid upon this ground, viz, July 10-20 inclusive; 

 thereafter, until the closing of the season on St. Paul, July 19, and on 

 St. George uj) to August -i, I have daily recorded the full details of the 

 hauling, the driving, and killing of seals there, the condition of the 

 breeding animals, their arrival and behavior, etc. A thousand varied 

 incidents have been faithfully observed, as my Held notes will testify, 

 and which appear with much detail in the following appendix to this 

 report. 



The present condition of these fur-seal ])reserves is nothing new to 

 the history of their case while in the hands of the Eussians. Twice 

 before in the comparatively short period of a century, when they were 

 first opened to the cupidity of man, have they been threatened with the 

 same ruin that threatens f hem to day. In 1806 and 1807 ail killing was 

 stopped to save them, but resumed again in 1808; too soon; for, after 

 seventeen years of halfway measures, the full and necessary term of 

 rest was given to them in 1834. The story of this "zai)00ska" of the 

 Russians in 1834, and the causes \\ hich le<l them to threaten the 

 extermination of those fur-seal interests on the Pribilov Islands, is one 

 that is now timely in its repetition and should be heeded. 



When these islands were first discovered in 178<>-87, an indiscriminate 



