132 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



(3) And therefore iu the regiihxr hunting season there is less need or occasion, dur- 

 ing the next lifteen years, to demand the whole seal kind. 



(4) Fewer seals were killed in those years generally following a previous year in 

 which there were larger numbers of the holluschickie — that is, when the young males 

 were not coiupletcly destroyed — and more were killed when the number of hollus- 

 chickie was less. 



(5) The number of holluschickie is a true register or showing of the number of 

 seals; i. e., if the holluschickie increase and exist like the young females, and con- 

 versely . 



(6) Holluschickie break from the (common) herd and gather by themselves no 

 earlier than the third year, as seen in the case of the spared seals on the islauds of 

 St. George and St. Paul, the latter from 1822-1824 to 1835-1837, inclusive; the former 

 from 182(i-27. 



(7) The number of seals killed on the island of St. George after two years 

 (ziipooska) was resumed and gradually increased to five times as many. 



(8) In the lifth year from the hrst zapooska (or savinij) it became impossible to 

 count or reckon on the number remaining, and G-year olds began to appear twelve 

 times as numerous and 7-year-olds came in numbers sevenfold greater than their 

 previous small number, and therefore the number of 3-year-old seals was cjuite con- 

 stant. 



(9) If on the island of St. George in 1826-27 the seals had not had this rest 

 (zapooska) and the killing had been continued even at the diminished ratio of one- 

 eighth, in 1840 or 1842 there would not have been a single seal left, as appears by 

 the following table : 



Seal.s. 



1825 5,500 



1826 4,400 



1827 3.520 



1828 2,816 



Seals. 1 Seals. 



1833 1,360 1837 700 



1834 1,190 1838 580 



1835 1, 040 ! 1839 500 



1836 850 I 1840 400 



RESULTS OF THE ZArOOSKA. 



Seals. 



1829 2,468 



1830 2,160 



1831 1,890 



1832 1,554 



(10) Following two years of zapooska (saving), the seal's life is enhanced for 

 more than ten years, and the loss sustained by the company in the time of " zapoo- 

 skov" (about 8. .500) is nuide good in the long run. The case may be thus stated : If 

 the company had not spared the seals in 1826-27 they would have received from 1820 

 to 1838 (twelve years) no more than 24,000; but by making this zapooska regulation 

 for two years they got in ten years 31,576, and beyond this, can yet take 15,000 with- 

 out another or any zapooska. 



(11) And in this case, where such an insiguilicant number of seals was si)ared on 

 St. George (about 8,500), and iu such a .short time (two years), the result was at once 

 siguilicant every year ; that is, three times more appeared than tlie number spared. 

 The result tlierefore must be large annually on the island of St. Paul, where in con- 

 secjuence of till' last orders or directions of the governor already four years of saving 

 have been in force, in which time over 30,000 seals have been left for breeding. 



On this account and in conformity with the above I here present a table, a prophesy 

 of the seals tiiat are to come iu the next fifteen years from 7,060 seals saved on the 

 island of St. Paul in 1S35. 



On the island of St. Paul, at the direction of the governor, a zapooska (or saving) 

 was made of 12,700 seals. That is. before the year 1834 there were killed 12,700 seals, 

 and, on the following year, if this saving had not been made, according to the testi- 

 mony of the iuhii.bitants, mi more than 12,200 seals would or could have been taken 

 from the islands, it being thought that this number (12,200) was only oue-twenty- 

 fifth of the whole; but instead of killing 12,200 only 4,052 were taken, leaving in 

 1835, for breeding, 8,118 fresh young seals, males and females, together. 



In making this hypothetical table of seals that are to come, I take the average 

 killing — that is, one-eighth part — and proceed on the supposition that the number of 

 saved seals will not be less than 7,060. 



In the number of 7,060 seals we can calculate upon 3,600 females — that is, a slight 

 majority of lenuiles. With the new females born under this zapooska, I place half 

 of those born the first year, and so on. 



Females, in the twelve or eighteen years next after their birth, must become less 

 in number from natural causes, and by the twenty-second year of their lives they 

 must be quite useless for breeding. 



Of the numl)er of seals which may he born during the next four years of zapooska, 

 or h)Uger, we may take half for females. This number is included in the table, and 

 the males or holluschickie make up the total. 



From tal)le 2 observe that — 



(1) Old females, that is, those which in 1835 were capable of bearing young, in 

 1850 must be cauceleil (minus). They probably die in proportion of one-eighth of 

 the whole number every year 



