24 FUR-SEAL FTSHKRIES OF ALASKA. 



obedieuceto its liabits; iuid tliis limit may safely be said to be over the 

 mark. Now, every fcnude or coir on this :? feci sqnare of space doubles 

 herself by bringing forth her young; and in a few days or a week 

 perhaps, after its birtli, the cow takes to the water to wash and feed, 

 and is not back on this allotted space one-half of the time again dur- 

 ing the season. Tii this irag, is if not clear that the females almost 

 double their number on the rookery grounds without causing the expansion 

 of the same beyond the limits that would be actually required did they not 

 bear any young at allf For every 100,000 breeding seals there will be 

 found liiore tlian 85,000 females and less than 15,000 males; and in a 

 few weeks after the landing of these females they will show for them- 

 selves— tbat is, for this 100,000— fully lSO,0(Hr males, females, and 

 young instead, on the same area of ground occupied previously to the 

 birth oj the pups. 



"It must be borne in mind that perhaps 10 or 12 per cent of the entire 

 number of females were yearlings last season and come up on to these 

 breeding grounds as nubiles for the first time during this season — as two- 

 year-old cows; they of course bear no young. The males, being treble 

 and quadruple the physical bulk of the females, require about four feet 

 square for their use of this same rookery ground: but, as they are less 

 than one-fifteenth the number of the females, much less in fact, they 

 therefore occupy only one eighth of the space over the breeding ground, 

 where we have located the vsupposed 100,000. This surplus area of the 

 males is also more than balanced and equalized by the 15,000 or 20,000 

 two-year-old females which come on to this ground for the first time to 

 meet the males. They come : rest a few days or a week and retire, 

 leaving no young to show their presence on the ground. 



"The breeding bulls average 10 leet apart by 7 feet on the rookery 

 ground ; have each a space therefore of about 70 square feet for an aver- 

 age family of 15 cows, 15 pups, and 5 virgin females, or 35 animals for 

 the 70 feet — 2 square feet for each seal., big or little. The virgin females 

 do not lay out long and the cows come and go at intervals, never all 

 being on this ground at one time, as the biTll has plenty of room in his 

 space of 70 square feet for himself and harem. 



"Taking all these points into consideration, and they are features of 

 fact, I quite safely calculate upon an average of 2 square feet to every 

 animal., big or little^ on the breeding grounds as the initial point upon 

 which to base an intelligerit computation of the entire number of seals 

 before us. Without iollowing this system of enumeration, a person 

 may look over these swarming myriads between Southwest Point and 

 Novastoshnah, guessing vaguely and wildly at any figure from 1,000,000 

 up to 10,000,000 or 12,000,000, as has been done repeatedly. How- few 

 people know what a million really is ! it is very easy to talk of a million, 

 but it is a tedious task to count it off', and makes one's statements as 

 to 'millions' decidedly more conservative after the labor has been 

 accomplished." 



[Transcript from the author's field notes of 1874.] 



Nah Speelkie, St. Paul Island, Jiihj 12, 

 I am satisfied to-day that the pupa are the sure guide to the whole nnmher of 

 seals on the rookeries. The mother seals are constantly cominfr and going, while the 

 pups never leave the spot upon which they are dropped, more than a few feet in any 

 direction until the rutting season ends; then they are allowed, with their mothers, 

 by the old bulls to scatter over all the ground they want to. At this date the com- 

 pact system of organization and massing on the breeding grounds is solidly main- 

 tained by the bnlls; it is not relaxed in the least until on and after July 20. 



