60 FUll-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



Upon this same basis of estimation,^ less tlian 300,000 pups were born 

 upon tlie Pribilov rookeries last year, 1889, but not more tban 70,000 to 

 80,000 of them returned to these islands in 1890, since their natural 

 enemies are as numerous and as active as ever in the sea, Avhile the surplus 

 store of seal life upon Avhich these enemies drew in 187-5, as they draw 

 now, has been rapidly diminishing during the last six years. Touching 

 this question in 1874, I said then : 



These fur seals of the Pribilov group, alter leaving the islands in the autuiini aiul eai'ly 

 winter, do not visit land again until the time of tlieir return in the following spring 

 and early summer to these same rookery and lymling grounds, iniless they touch, as 

 they are navigating their lengthened journey hack, at the l^ussian Copper and Bering 

 islands, 700 miles to the -westward of the Pribilov group. They leave tiio islands by 

 independent squads, each one looking out for itself. Apparently all turn by eommou 

 consent to the south, disajipeariug toward the horizon, and are soon lost in the vast 

 expanse below, where they spread themselves over the entire Korth Pacific as far 

 south as tho forty-eighth and even the forty-seventh jiarallels of north latitude. 

 Over the immense area between .lapan and Oregon doubtless njauy extensive sub- 

 marine iishing shoals and banks are known to them. At least it is definitely under- 

 stood that Bering Sea does not contain them long when they dei)art irom the breeding 

 rookeries and the hauling grounds therein. While it is carried in mind that they 

 sleep and rest in the water with soundness and witli the greatest ccnnfort on its 

 surface, and that even when around the lan<l during the summer they fre(|ueutly put 

 oft" from the beaches to take a bath and a quiet snooze just beyond the surf, we can 

 readily agree that it is no inconvenience Avhatever — tho reproductive functi<ms hav- 

 ing been discharged and their coats renewed — for them to stay the balance of the time 

 ill their most congenial element, the briny deep. 



That these animals are ]>reyed iqion extensively by killer whales'^ (Orca (/hidiaio)), 

 and by sliarks,-' and probably other snbmarine foes now unknown, is at once evi- 

 dent, for were they not held in check by some such cause they would, as they exist 

 to-day on St. Paul, quickly multiiily, by arithmetical progression, to so great an 

 extent that the island, nay Bering Sea itself, could not contain them. The present 

 annual killing of 100,000 out of a yearly total of over 1,OOQ,000 males does not, in an 

 appreciable degree, diminish the seal life or interfere in the slightest with its regu- 



be put, and to give the seals the full benefit of every doubt. Surely, I liax'o clearly 

 presented the case, and certainly no one will question the ])renn'ses after they have 

 studied the hal>it and disposition of the rookeries. Hence it is a positive and tenable 

 statement that no dangci of tho slightest appreciable degree of injury to the inter- 

 ests of the Government on the seal islands of Alaska exists as long as the present 

 law protecting it and the niauagement executing it continues. 



' Eight at this point, in 1890, 1 realize the jtaramount importance of keeping a much 

 larger surplus male life in reserve than I did in 1874. I see its necessity now : by 

 reducing the male life to tho figures which I thought were safe in 1871, I would 

 only prevent that constant lighting among tlie sires on the rookery, irhivh is abso- 

 lutely iiecoisarij for the best perpetuation of the race — that struggle of the fittest to sur- 

 vive as the progenitors of the herd. Man can not interfere here with these wildest 

 of wild animals: animals which he can not feed or control in the slightest degree, 

 he can not breed as he can cattle, sheep, or hogs. 



-Orca (jJaeiiator. — AMiile revolving this particular line of in<iuiry in my mind when 

 on the ground and annnig the seals, I involuntarily looked constantly for some sign 

 of disturbance in the sea which would indicate the presence of an enemy ; and, save 

 seeing a few examples of the Orca, I never detecttid anything. But the killer whale 

 is common here: it is patent to the most casual eye, liecauso it is the habit of this 

 ferocious cetacean to swim so closely at the surface as to show its ]>eculiar sliarp. 

 dorsal fin high above the water. Possibly a very supcrlicial observer could and 

 wonld confound the long, trenchant lluko of the Orca with the stubby node upon the 

 spine of the humpback whale, whicli that animal exhibits only when it is about to 

 dive. Humpl)ack8 feed around the islands, but not commonly — they are the excep- 

 tion. They do not, however, molest the seals in any manner whatever; and little 

 8(|nads of these pinni]>e(ls seem to delight themselves by swimming in eiulless circles 

 around and under the huge bodies of tliose Avhales, freijuently leaping out and 

 entirely over the cetacean's back ! as witnessed on one occasion by myself and the 

 crew of the lieJiance, off tho coast of Kadiak, .June, 1871. 



■' SomniosHS microcephulns. — Some of these siiarks are of very large size, and when 

 caught by the Indians of the northwest coast, basking or aslee]) on the surface of 

 the sea, they will, if transfixed by tiie natives' harpoons, take a wliole fleet of canoes 

 in tow and run swiftlv with them several hours before exhaustion enables the 



