58 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



TLe foregoing" figures, presented step by step as tliey were made, 

 declare the fact that in 181)0 there arc in round numbers, only one-third 

 the number of breeding seals and young on the Pribilov^ rookeries which 

 existed in 1872-1874. ' 



Following my figures, i)ublished in 1874, 1 made this detailed explana- 

 tion of my understanding of the question as to number and condition. 

 It is perfectly applicable to the present order of affairs: 



The figures above thus show a fjrand total of 3,193,420 breeding seals and their 

 young. This enormous aggregate is entirely exclusive of the great numbers of the 

 uoubreeding seals that, as ^ve have pointed out, are never permitted to come np on 

 these grounds which have been surveyed and e]>itomized by the table Just exliibited. 

 That class of seals — the holluschickie, in general terms — all males, and those to which 

 the killing is confined, come np on the laud and sea beaches between the rookeries 

 in immense straggling droves, going to and from the sea at irregular intervals from 

 the beginning to the closing of the entire season. The method of the holluschickie 

 on these hauling grounds is not systematic; it is not distinct, like the manner and 

 law prescri))ed and obeyed by the breeding seals, which fill up those rookery grounds 

 to the certain jioiuts as surveyed and keep these points intact for a weelc or ten days 

 at a time during the height of every season in July aud Angnst : but, to the contrary, 

 upon the hauling grounds to-day an immense drove of 100,00!) will T)e seen before you 

 at English Bay, sweeping hither and surging thither over the polished surface which 

 they have worn with their restless fiippers, tracing and retracing their tireless 

 marches. 7^o-morrow, if a heavy rain has fallen in the meantime, or it has chauged 

 to an unusually Avarm, dry day, you will scarcely find 10,000 there or here wliere you 

 saw legions yesterday. Con8e<iueutly the amount of ground occupied by the hollu- 

 schickie is vastly in excess of what they would require did they conform to the same 

 law of distribution observed by the breeding seals, and this ground is therefore 

 Avholly intenable 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 aggre- 

 gate number of holluschickie, or Jioubrecding seals, on the Pribilov Islands, embrac- 

 ing, as it does, all the males under 6 and 7 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 noubreeding seals seem nearly equal in number to that of the adult breeding 

 seals; but without putting them down at a figure (juite so high I may safely say that 

 the sum total of 1,500,000. in round numbers, is a fair enumeration and quite within 

 bounds of fact. This makes the grand sum total of the fur-seal life on the Pribilof 

 Islands over 4,700,000. 



My estimate, as above cited, of 1,500,000 noubreeding seals (i. e., all 

 males under 7 years and the yearlings of both sexes) as existing and 

 hauling on the Pribilov Islands during the seasons of 1872-1874 was a 

 very conservative one — far more eon.serratire and less liberal than the one 

 1 am about to male for the number of hoUuschiclie and yearlings u-hich 

 hare surrived and ((ppear in IS'.IO^ upon these hauling grounds of the se((l 

 islands of Alasla: and this calculation appears Avith detail in the fol- 

 lowing section {Section II) of this report. Briefiy stated here, it is an 

 cxtremelt/ liberal estimate of mine ichen I admit the existence to-daij (July 

 31, 1890) upon these islands of 80,000 hoUusehielde and ^^polseacatchie,^'' 

 i. e., male fur seals from 1 year up to G years old ! 



Naturally enough, when summingui^mywork of 1872-1874, the thought 

 arose as to the probable future of those wonderful exhibitions of massed 

 animal life which I saw before me then, upon the Pribilov rookeries. As 

 to the subject of their increasing, I said — 



I am free to say that it is not within the power of human management to ]iromoto 

 this end to the slightest apprecial)le degree over its present extent and condition as 

 it stands in the state of nature heretofors described. It can not fail to be e^ ideut, 

 from my detailed narration of the habits aud life of the fur .seal on these islands 

 during so large a jiart of every year, that could man hav(> the same supervision and 

 control over this animal during the whole season wliich he has at liis conuuand while 

 they visit the land, lie might cause them to multi)>ly and increase, as he would so 

 many cattle, to an indefinite number — only limited by time and tiie means of feeding 

 them. But the case in question, nnfortunately, is one Avhere the fur seal is taken, 

 by demands for food, at least six mouths out of every year, far beyond the reach or 



