FUB-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 211 



and doing, that the catch outside of Bering Sea uj) to July 1 was 47,000 

 skins. These skins were shipped ou a special Victoria steamer by the 

 sealers at a common rendezvous at Sand Poiut, and at Tliin Point, or 

 Sannak Island, before they ventured into Beiing Sea. This is an enor- 

 mous catch, and must have been wholly taken from the cows, since there 

 are little or no male seals left. The collector says that out of the 07 

 skins which lie seized, the sealers informed him that 60 were females 

 when killed, all heimj with their unhorn young ! 



Certainly, the absence of seals in the water as we came down yester- 

 day, over a sea that was smooth and glassy, was surprising. We saw 

 but four young seals on the entire stretch between Oonalashka and the 

 island of St. George. The opportunity for viewing these animals uever 

 could be better, and the inference is unavoidable that they are rapidly 

 running out. 



I find the opinion commonly expressed here, as it was when I first 

 came up, that the active, uninterrupted shooting and hunting of these 

 seals on the several paths of travel uj) to the seal islands from the 

 Pacific on one side, has deflected large bodies of them over to the Rus- 

 sian rookeries. It stands to reason that a fleet of forty or forty-five 

 or more vessels, all hovering about the entrances to the passes of the 

 Aleutian chain on the Pacific side — the passes of Oonimak, Akootan, 

 and Oonimak especially — that such a reception would head oft' and turn 

 aside a, regular, orderly migration of these animals. How many of 

 them are thus turned over to the Russian herds, Avhich really belong to 

 us, I have no idea; who can say? But at this present hour every seal 

 lost to the rookeries of the Pribilov group counts heavily against the 

 future life and j)reservation of those interests. 



Touching this matter of the commingling of the two herds, I can not 

 think of a better illustration of the fact that they do not visit back 

 and forth on the islands — do not interchange on the islands — than the 

 following: Farmer A has a large number of chickens, white Leghorns, 

 which he breeds in his barnyard year after year, with great success. 

 Farmer B, who lives up and beyond, across the country road from 

 Farmer A, also has a fine flock of these same white Leghorn fowls, 

 which he, too, breeds with great success and profit, and has done so 

 for a long time. 



Now, during the summer months, a number of these chickens reared 

 by Farmer A regularly range out into the country road, up and down, 

 in search of food, and, in so doing, meet and scratch together with the 

 fowls of Farmer B, which come also out into the roadway in obedience 

 to the same instinct. Anybody seeing them together on this common 

 meeting ground, could not possibly tell them apart as the special prop- 

 erty alone of Farmer A or B. 



But, the chickens never make a mistake; they invariably separate 

 and return every evening to their respective barnyards, where they 

 were hatched and reared. 



So it is with these fur seals of the Russian and Alaskan herds in 

 Bering Sea. I believe that they, like the fowls above described, meet 

 each other frequently when feeding throughout the waters of Bering 

 Sea, that roll between the Asiatic and American seal islands of their 

 birth ; but that they always return, when desirous of hauling out on 

 land, to the rookeries on which they were born ; the Russian fur seals 

 always returning to the Commander Islands, and the Alaskan callorhini 

 always returning to the Pribilovs. 



Abnormal conditions might change this fixed habit of their livesj as 

 far as I know to-day, no such conditions have prevailed. 



