FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 31 



breeding- seals and their young. Heavy as this enumeration is, yet the 

 aggregate only makes the Keef rookery third in importance compared 

 with the others which we are yet to describe. 



THE REEF KOOKEBY (1890). 

 \_If8 condition and appearance Jnly, 1890.'] 



On the accompanying map of this breeding ground the area and 

 position of the massed seal life as surveyed in 187L', is shown by a lighter 

 tint, over Avhich the reduced form and number of 1890 is sharply drawn 

 in dark relief; the ragged, scattered massing of to-day is also clearly 

 shown by this survey; that solid, uniform organization of 1872 is not 

 more than suggested by it over the entire field. Those curious "jags" 

 of breeding seals which show so plainly on the Garbotch slope, form the 

 most striking feature of that changed order of affairs, which declares a 

 reduction of more than one-half of the females, and fully nine- tenths of 

 the males on this rookery. 



Then, that splendid parade ground of 1872 is now fairly deserted — 

 grass and mosses and lichens and even flowers are taking root every- 

 where over its polished surface of 1872; and Zoltoi sands — it has not 

 been visited by young male seals this year during the sealing season — 

 none left to come! 



The whole of this Keef neck in 1872, south of Grassy Summit and 

 Fox Cliff, was entirely bara of grass or any vegetation whatever, except 

 lichens on inaccessible rocks to seals, and tufts of grass on the over- 

 hanging points and cliff edges of the west shore; but, on the 0th of last 

 August, as I stood overlooking the whole field from the summit of Fox 

 Cliff, the interior of it was f((irh/ gree)i, and only straggling bands of a 

 dozen seals here, and a hundred there, were hauling over it. 



Eighteen years ago, these slopes of Garbotch and the Reef i)arade 

 were covered with angry, eager, lusty bulls, two and three weeks before 

 the first cows even arrived. They came in by tlje 5th to 22d of May in 

 such numbers as to fill the space at close intervals of from 7 to 10 feet 

 apart, solidly from the shore line to the ridge summit: and over, even, 

 so far that it required the vigorous use of a club before we could get 

 upon Old John Rock from the rear; then, too, at that time they were 

 fighting in every direction under our eyes. 



This season 1 do not observe a bull here, where I saw at least ten at 

 this time eighteen years ago! Now, not a fight in i)rogiess anywhere 

 here; there are not bulls enough to quarrel. They are now scattered 

 ai)art so widely over this same ground as to be 100 and even 150 feet 

 apart over ground where in 1S72, an interval of 10 feet between them 

 did not exist — was not possible to be seen. 



The labor of locating and maintaining a position on the rookery then 

 was a serious business for these bulls which came in last; and it was so 

 all the time to those males that occui)ied the water line of the breeding 

 grounds. A constantly sustained fight between the newcomers and the 

 occupants progressed morning, noon, and night, without cessation: 

 fre(iuently resulting in death to the combatants. In 1874, I said: 



It appears from iiiy survey of these breeding giomids that a well-miderstood ])riu- 

 ciple exists among the able-bodied bulls, to wit, that each one shall remain on his 

 ground, which is usually about 6 to 8 feet sciuaie, provided that at the start, and 

 from that time iintil the arrival of the females, he is strong enough to hold this 

 ground against all comers; inasmuch as the crowding in of the fresh -arrivals oftea 

 causes the removal of those which, though e(iually able-bodied at tirst, have 

 exhausted themselves by lighting earlier and constantly; they are linally driven by 

 these fresher animals back farther and higher up ou the rookery, and sometimes oS 

 altogether. 



