102 



FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



19 and 20, the standard was again lowered so as to take all the "short'' 

 2 year-olds; and the catch of those last killings was increased more 

 than 70 per cent by the acceptance of D-pouud skins, which had been 

 rejected emphatically np to that hour, 



Plad the lessees been permitted to kill longer, the result would have 

 been another quick "run to emptyings" by the lapse of three or four 

 more killings. The supply of "short" 2-year-olds would then have 

 been exhausted in turn, as the higher grades had, hitherto. The seals 

 simi)ly do not exist in suflicient numbers to fill the quota, and the above 

 statements of fact prove it. 



TABLE SHOWING CONTRAST IN SEASONS OF 1874 AND 1890. 



Summarif of this percentage of seals rejected from the herds (as driven from the hauling 

 grounds) when upon the Jcilling groiindu of St. Paul Island, Pribilov Group, Bering Sea. 



[Average percentage of seals "turned out ' from the driven "pods. ] 



Dates of driven herds. 



From June 5 to 15, inclusive. 

 From .June 15 to 30, inclusive 

 From July 1 to 15, inclusive. 

 From July 15 to 20, inclusive 



Seasons of 



1872-1874, 



inclusive, o 



Per cent. 



5 tog 



10 to 12 



35 to 40 



60 to 75 



Season of 

 1890. 6 



Per cent. 



60 to 70 



70 to 85 



c 85 to 90 



d 90 to 93 



aNothing hut 7 to 12 pound skins taken from the start to the finish. 



6 Nothing but 7 to 12 pound skins taken up to July 4; then all S^-pound skins included; last two 

 days, all 5 jiound skins were taken. 

 cStandard lowered to 5^-pound skins, 

 d Standard again lowered to 5 pound skins. 



The foregoing statement declares that in 1872-1874, to get the quota 

 then secured of 100,000 7 and 12 pound skins (3 and 4 year olds chiefly 

 then taken), required the driving of only 120,000 seals from the hauling 

 grounds to the slaughter fields. 



But in 1890, if a quota of 100,000 such skins could have been secured, 

 it would have required the driving of at least 1,000,000 seals ! 



It is, to-day, au extremely liberal estimate of mine when I admit the 

 existence of 80,000 holluschickie, or male seals, from 1 year old to 4- 

 year-olds, as left upon these islands of Pribilov July 31, 1890; and 9 per 

 cent of this 80,000 are yearlings! 



The strange absence of a due proportion of 2-year-olds in the assem- 

 bled holluschickie of this year (1890), I believe is largely due to the 

 killing of some 25,000 yearlings last summer, in that desperate eflbit 

 made then, to fill out the quota allowed of 100,000, coupled with the 

 subsequent deadly effect of that su'muier's driving upon the spared 

 yearlings. 



The following field notes and data, are now given in this connection: 



June 23, 1890. 



Those two pods of holluschickie which I have ohserved under Middle Hill and 

 Tolstoi durinji; the last two days, were driven up this mornmg. I made an itemized 

 count of percentages — the number driven up iu each "pod " and the number turned 

 out to the sea from it. 



a Not in time to count it. 



