FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 67 



In 1874 I made the following analysis of a detailed description of the 

 seals on the breeding grounds : 



REVIKW OF STATEMENTS CONCERNING LIFE IN THE ROOKERIES. 



To recapitulate and sum up the system and regular method of life and reproduc- 

 tion on these rookeries of St. Paul and St. George, as the seals seem to have arranged 

 it, I shall say that — 



First. The earliest' bulls land in a negligent, indolent way, at the opening of the 

 season, soon after tlie rocks at the water's edge are free from ice, frozen snow, etc. 

 This is, as a rule, about the Ist to the r)th of every May. They land from the begin- 

 ning to the end of the season in perfect confidence and without fear; they are very 

 fat, and will weigh on an average 500 pounds each. Some stay at the water's edge, 

 some go to the tier back of them again, and so on until the whole rookery is mapped 

 out by them weeks in advance of the arrival of the first female. 



Second. That by the 10th or 12th of .Tune all the male stations on the rookeries 

 have been mapped out and fought for, and held in waiting by the " seecatchie."' 

 These males are, as a rule, bulls rarely ever under 6 years of age ; most of them over 

 that age, being sometimes three, and occasionally doubtless four, times as old. 



Third. That the cows make their first appearance, as a class, on or after the 12th or 

 15th of June in very small numbers ; but rapidly after the 23d and 25th of this month 

 every year they begin to flock up in such numbers as to till the harems very percept- 

 ibly, and by the 8th or 10th of July they have all come, as a rule — a few stragglers 

 excepted. The average weight of the female now will not be much more than 80 to 

 90 pounds each. 



Fourth. That the breeding season is at its height from the 10th to the 15th of July 

 every year, and that it subsides entirely at the end of this month and early in 

 August; also, that its method and system are confined entirely to the land, never 

 effected in the sea. * 



Fifth. That the females bear their first young when they are 3 years old, and 

 that the period of gestation is nearly twelve months, lacking a few days only of that 

 lapse of time. 



Sixth. That the females bear a single pup each, and that this is born soon after 

 landing. No exception to this rule has ever been witnessed or recorded. 



Serejith. That the "seecatchie" which have held the harems from the beginning 

 to the end of the season leave for the water in a desultory and straggling manner at 

 its close, greatly emaciated, iind do not return, if they do at all, until six or seven 

 weeks have elapsed, when the regular, systematic distribution of the families over 

 the rookeries is at an end for this season. A general medley of young males are now 

 free, which come out of the water and wander all over these rookeries, together 

 with many old males which have not been on seraglio duty, and great numbers of 

 females. An immense majority over all others present are pups, since only about 25 

 per cent of the mother seals are out of the water now at any one time. 



Ei(jhth. That the rookeries lose tlieir compactness and definite boundaries of true 

 breeding limit and expansion by the 25th to the 28th of July every year. Then, after 

 this date, the pups begin to haul back to the right and left in small squads at first; 

 hut as the season goes on, by the 18th of August, they dei)art without reference to 

 their mothers, and when thus scattered, tll(^ males, females, and young swarm over 

 more than three and four times the area occupied by them when breeding and born 

 on the rookeries. The system of family arrangement and uniform compactness of 

 the breeding classes breaks up at this date. 



Ninth . That by the 8th or 10th of August the pups born nearest the water first 

 begin to learn to swim, and that by the 15th or 20th of September they are all 

 familiar, more or less, with the exercise. 



Tenth. That by the middle of September the rookeries are entirely broken up. 

 Confused, straggling bands of females are seen among the bachelors, pups, and small 

 squads of old males, crossing and recrossing the ground in an aimless, listless manner. 

 The season now is over. 



Elettenth. That many of the seals do not leave these grounds of St. Paul and 

 St. George before the end of December, and some remain even as late as the 12th of 

 January ; bu,t that by the end of October and the beginning of November every year all 

 the male seals of mature age — 5 and 6 years and upward — have left the islands. The 

 younger males go with the others. Many of the pups still range about the islands, 

 but are not hauled to any great extent on the beaches or the flats. They seem to 

 prefer the rocky shore margin and to lie as high up as they can get on such blutty 

 rookeries as Tolstoi and the reef. By the end of this month (November) they are, as 

 a rule, all gone. 



In precisely the same time and the same manner as above stated in 

 1872, did the breeding seals arrive and behave on the Pribilov rookeries 

 this season of 1890. I know this by daily verification up to the 11th of 



