150 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



June 24, 1890. — Scarcely any change for the cows to-day. Those 

 hoUnschickie on the sand have hauled up on the hill, about 100 feet, 

 and are now sleeping in among the breeding bulls. 



June 27^ 1890. — Scarcely any change. 



July 1, 1890. — I have passed three hours this afternoon marking and 

 watching the service of the bulls in their harems. It is simply lifeless, 

 languid," and fairly iuipoteut; wholly so in many cases at this early 

 date. What will it be ten days later, if it is so feeble now at the 

 outset? Saw two "polseecatchie" at the water's edge and one at the 

 rear. Where, indeed, are these animals"? What, indeed, is on hand, 

 or will be for the next six years to come, to supply the places of these 

 scattered and already enfeebled sires of the rookery? 



July 10, 1890. — I made a careful survey of the area and position of 

 the breeding seals on Lukannon and Ketavie this afternoon in company 

 with and aided by Mr. Charles J. Goft. On Lukannon, while there 

 appears to be two-tifths as many cows as iu 1872, yet the bulls do not 

 average more than one fifteenth of the number they showed at that time. 

 No better on Ketavie, if anything, a shade or two worse. No young 

 bulls anywhere offering service or attempting to land on the rookery. 



KETAVIE. 



June 13, 1890. — A comical picture was made to-day when, in the after- 

 noon, the entire herd of nuiles, 10 in number, filed over from the village 

 and pastured on the seal grass that grows on the deserted outskirts of 

 the rookery at Ketavie. The old bulls in waiting paid not the least 

 attention to them that I Gould see, while the mules were equally uulif 

 fereut. I presume that such a pastoral scene as this has never been 

 witnessed outside of these islands. 



June 22, 1890.— A^ this is the time the cows begin to haul in appre- 

 ciable numbers, I took a careful view at this (Ketavie) rookery to day 

 from that point of sight iu the sketch opposite. I saw but three clusters 

 of cows in all the sweep of this picture, and they in the foreground 

 right between the first and second rollers as they came in. These pods 

 were bevies of from 3(> to 50 cows each, all thickly clustered around a 

 single bull with all the other bulls stretched in somnolence around them : 

 just as I recorded the state of affairs on Tolstoi yesterday ; and, as I go 

 over the field on Lukannon right after this, I find it precisely that way 

 there. This apathy of the bulls, coupled with the total absence of the 

 "polseecatchie" (or half bulls) on these breeding grounds at this hour 

 is a striking contrast Avith that vim and fury that was so marked among 

 the swarming bulls of 187.! on this and every other one of the breeding 

 grounds of the Pribilov Islands. It is in order to record the fact that 

 the cows are not hauling iu anything like the numbers of 1872-1874. 

 On Lukannon and the Lagoon the dearth of cows today is noteworthy : 

 while, at Tolstoi, nearly every cow there this afternoon is as I described 

 it yesterday; three small pods right down at the junction of rocks and 

 sand under the clifl's; 25() cows perhaps on that whole ground tliis 

 afternoon. 



TOLSTOI. 



June 12, 1890. — A tour to day on Tolstoi shows little or no change in 

 ''seecatchie'' from last date. I saw no cows. Quite a troop of hoUns- 

 chickie on the sand, just above surf wash, and beyond the drop of the 

 rookery to the sand beach. 



The ohl bulls are hauling here very wildly — way back 500 feet with 

 50 to 100 feet between them in many instances. No fighting anyn-here, 

 and no young bulls at the icater''s edge. The i)olscecatchie — perhaps I 



