FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 21 



pelagic hunter since 1882, while the females have had but one direct 

 attack outside of natural causes; they have been, however, the chief 

 quarry of the pelagic sealer duriug the last five years. The slow elimiua- 

 tiou of that surplus young male life which was and is necessary for the 

 continued support of these rookeries, and its abrupt curtailment entirely 

 during the last two seasons, coupled with the deadly work of the open- 

 sea hunter throughout the last five years, brings these renowned fields 

 of fur-seal life into immediate danger of speedy extermination as mat- 

 ters are to-day. In order that the full gravity of this statement may 

 be appreciated, I deem it proper that the several steps should be retaken 

 which I took in 1872-1874 toward the determination of that number of 

 seals I recorded then as existing on the Pribilov rookeries. I said then 

 in my published monograph under this particular head : ^ 



author's plan of computation in 1872-1874. 



"Before I can intelligently and clearly present an accurate estimate 

 of the aggregate number of fur seals which appear upon those great 

 breeding grounds of the Pribilov group every season, I must take up 

 in regular sequence my surveys of these remarkable rookeries which I 

 have illustrated in this memoir by the accompanying sketch maps, 

 showing topographically the superficial area and distribation assumed 

 by the seal life at each locality. 



"It will be observed that the sum total on St. Paul Island preponder- 

 ates and completely overshadows that which is represented at St. 

 George. Before passing to the detailed discussion of each rookery, it 

 is well to call attention to a few salient features in regard to the pres- 

 ent appearance of the seals on these breeding grounds, which latter 

 are of their own selection. Touching the location of the fur seals to-day, 

 as I have recorded and surveyed it, compared with their distribution 

 in early times, I am sorry to say that there is not a single line on a 

 chart, or a, word printed in a book, or a note made in 7nanuscri2)t, ichich 

 refers to this all import ant subject prior to my own irorl; which I pre- 

 sent herewith for the first time to the public. The absence of definite 

 information in regard to what I conceive to be of vital interest and 

 importance to the whole business astonished me ; I could not at first 

 believe it, and for the last four or five years I have been searching 

 among the archives of the old Russian company, as 1 searched dili- 

 gently when up there and elsewhere in the Territory of Alaska, for some 

 evidence in contradiction of this statement which I have just made. I 

 wanted to find — I hoped to discover — some old record, some clue, by 

 which I could measure with authority and entire satisfaction to my 

 own mind the relative volume of seal life in the past, as compared with 

 that which 1 record in the present: but, was disappointed. 



"I am unable, throughout the whole of the following discussion, to 

 cite a single reliable statement which can give any idea as to the condi- 

 tion and numbers of the fur seal on these islands when they were dis- 

 covered in 1786-87, or during the whole time of their occupation since, 

 up to the date of my arrival. I mark this so conspicuously, for it is 

 certainly a very strange oversight: a kind of neglect, which, in my 

 opinion, has been, to say the least, inexcusable. 



RUSSIAN RECORDS, 



"In attempting to form an apiiroximate conception of what the seals 

 were or might have been in those early days, as they spread themselves 



'Pages 48-50, Monograph, Seal Islands (Census ed. 1881). 



