b SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIIilLOF ISLANDS. 



(Station G) by tlie thinly covered spaces. There was also a perceptible 

 thinning among the small bauds of breeding seals under the blufts 

 between Little Polavina and the main rookery. Photographed July li8. 



Litilc Polavina rool<ery has apparently suttered a slight decrease. 

 The wide hauling ground between this rookery and the main Polavina 

 was practically bare throughout the season, seals being seen generally 

 close to the bluttin the vicinity of the slopes that give access from the 

 beach. Photographed July 28. 



Lulannon roolery. — On that part of this rookery where the seals are 

 crowded, chiefly between the low blutt" and the beach, there hns been 

 no ap])arent change, but there were certainly fewer seals than in 1892 

 upon the hill that divi<les tliis rookery fiom Ketavie. The hauling 

 ground had largely changed horn the slope at the west end of the rookery 

 to the sand beach just north of it, as shown in the photograph taken at 

 station 20. IMiotographed July 17. 



Ketavie rookery, now the thinnest rookery on the islands, shows a per- 

 cei)tible decrease since 181)2. This decrease is distinguishable in some, 

 if not all, of the photographs of the rookery. Photographed July 17. 



Reef rookery. — The hauling grounds at this rookery have not been 

 delineated ui)on the chart for the reason that the bachelors Mere driven 

 too often to i)ermit of their lying in a perfectly natural condition. This 

 rookery shows a shrinkage under the low bluffs Just noith of Garbotch 

 (indicated on the chart), but otherwise there has been no change that I 

 can detect. There was a loss of one or two hundred pups from the 

 storm of July 30, 1803. Sea Lion Pock, lying just oft' this rookery, was 

 visited and found to be very evenly occupied by breeding seals. The 

 central i)ortions of Peef Point, over wliich tlie bachelors travel more 

 or less, is becoming distinctively more tliicrkly covered with grass from 

 year to year. I'hotographed Jnly 22. 



Lagoon rookery remains unchanged since 18!>2. Photographed Au- 

 gust 1. 



Tolstoi rookery. — The photographs exhibit only a sligiit change or 

 thinning out of the seals at this place, which is shown more distinctly 

 on the chart. There was a loss of perhaps .";()() young pups from the 

 storm of July 30, 1803. They were swept from the narrow beach 

 below the cliff and deposited in a windrow at high-water mark near 

 the commencement of the sand beach to the northward. There was 

 no other loss of imps here, with the excei)tion of the scattered loss 

 from natural causes. Photogrnphed July 22. 



Loirer Z<(y<(dnie rookery showed no change in number of seals, with 

 the exception of one or two breaks along the shingle beach. Photo- 

 graphed July 22. 



Upper Z((p<((htic rookery is the most ditlicult seal area on the Pribilof 

 Islands to examine, and as the weather did not permit the use of a 

 boat, the larger bands of seals near the beach could not be approached 

 without disturbing the tract of seals in their rear. There has, how- 

 ever, been a decrease of seal life here, which is, 1 think, noticeable on 

 the photographs. Photographed July 22. 



ST. GEORGE ISLAND. 



East rookery shows very little change since last season, except in the 

 distribution of bachelors, the main body of M^hich had hauled out north 

 of the pond instead of south of it as in 1802. Owing to the unfavor- 

 able points from which this rookery has to be photographed to avoid 



