212 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



Captain Tanner has been cruising in Bering Sea, between Oonalashka 

 and Bristol Bay, and as far to the westward as longitude 175° west, 

 latitude 59° north, and has seen but three schooners up to date. Two 

 of those vessels were in the full tide of sealing, as above stated, 60 

 miles west of St. Paul Island, and the other was a rusty little craft just 

 above Auiak Island, west of Oouiniak Island. But that does not signify 

 that there are no more — on the contrary, it is very likely that there are 

 more. 



A careful inquiry here to-day, discloses the fact that fur seals have 

 never hauled on the beaches of Ooiialaska Island : and have never come 

 into the harbor here, within sight of the natives, except for a few days 

 only: when strong northerly gales prevail: and, as soon as it becomes 

 calm, they go out again and down into the Pacific. From time imme- 

 morial, fur seal pups have been shot and speared every fall, in iTovem- 

 ber chietly, as they migrated south into the Pacific from Bering Sea. 

 Anywhere from a few hundred to 2,500 annually have thus been secured 

 since the Eussians first opened up the country in 1768-1786. The best 

 resort for such hunting is Oomnak Pass; it was in the past, and is now. 

 It was this annual passage of these animals, down in the autumn and 

 up in the summer, through these passes of the Aleutian Archipelago, 

 that aroused the first search of the Russians for the seal islands. 



The scarcity of seals this year has been commented upon by the 

 fishermen of Alaska, who declare that they have been getting larger 

 catches this season than ever before, and lay the change to the decrease 

 of seal life. Captain Tanner says that he has seen several of these men 

 who have charge of canneries and codfishing stations at Oonga and 

 Popov islands; they all said that unquestionably the increase of fish 

 was due to the decrease of seals; if not wholly due to that, it certainly 

 was in a measure. I am by no means inclined to regard the circum- 

 stance as noteworthy to any appreciable degree whatever ; nor can I 

 believe much in the deflection of any large body of fur seals from the 

 Aleutian passes up to our side of Bering Sea and the Pribilov Islands. 

 There is not as yet enough ground covered by these sea hunters to make 

 that abrupt turn down south of the' Aleutian chain of the fur-seal herd, 

 wherein too long, too wide, and too frequent an opportunity exists for 

 them to go wholly unmolested uj) to their i)laces of birth in Bering Sea. 

 They might be so headed off" by a cordon of hundreds of schooners 

 hovering steadily in the mouths of these passes, with the wind and 

 weather always <;lear and calm, still water, and foggy only at short 

 intervals; but such is not the case here; the weather is treacherous, 

 the winds rise and blow for days and days; the fog settles and hangs 

 for weeks and weeks so thick that the oldest and most experienced 

 seamen actuall}^ get lost in its confusion. During these periods, the 

 fur seals can and do pass safely through into Bering Sea, no matter 

 how many schooners, filled with no matter how many hunters, may be 

 in the waters outside waiting to intercept them. 



Then, when it does clear up, becomes calm, and the horizon is visible 

 in every direction, these pelagic hunters can and do work rapidly and 

 successfully during the brief intervals which such weather affords; 

 brief, I say, because the clear, calm, bright day off the Aleutian chain 

 and in its passes, is a rare one, and is easily remembered during each 

 season. Therefore, I do not feel warranted in believing that as yet, any 

 deflection by hunting in the open waters of the ocean has been made to 

 or in that path of migration regularly pursued by the fur seal. 



I think that such a deflection might be caused by the withdrawal of 

 large schools of food-fish supply from the Aleutian Bering Sea region — 

 by its abandonment of this region and location in the Occident— such 



