SEAL LIFE ON THE PKIBILOF ISLANDS. 107 



Bringing together the estimates for all the classes of seals, we have 

 the followiug: 



St. Paul : • 



Biichelors 24, 144 



Breeding bulls o, 839 



Cows , 61,436 



Pups ' 46, 077 



135,496 



St. George : 



Bachelors 



Breeding bulls 563 



Cows 8, 987 



Pups 6, 741 



20,481 



Total number of seals on both islands 155, 977 



111 my jiidgnient the foregoing estimate is fairly reliable; but it 

 should be remembered that it is only an estimate. In a matter so 

 extremely complex, and with factors so constantly varying, I do not 

 think any estimate can be made which will approximate the truth more 

 than somewhat remotely. 



The chief use of such calculations in the ])resent connection is, in my 

 opinion, for the elimination of fanciful estimates of the number of seals. 

 Thus, a statement that there are a million or half a million seals on the 

 islands may safely be disregarded, as may e(|ually any claim that there 

 are but a few thousand remaining. It is ])robably as important to know 

 how many seals are on any one or two of the rookeries as to know how 

 many are on all of them, and this can be ascertained M'ith fair accuracy, 

 as shown by the enumerations of Ketavie and the Lagoon rookeries 

 made this year. If it is found in July, 1897, that there are 3,(100 cows 

 on the Lagoon rookery, it may be fairly asserted that this rookery has 

 doubled in two years. 



PRESENT CONDITION OF THE ROOKERIES AS REGARDS THE 

 DECREASE OF SEALS. 



The three questions to which my attention was directed before visit- 

 ing the islands as the most im])ortant ones for consideration are 

 extremely difHcult to answer. They relate to the present conditions as 

 regards the decrease in the number of seals, the cause of the decrease, 

 and the remedy. 1 realize now, })erhai»s even more fully than before I 

 visited the islands, how difficult it will be to lin<l a solntion to these 

 problems which will till every need and meet ev'ery objeclion. Never- 

 theless, I address myself to the task, with the hope that what I have to 

 offer may prove at least suggestive. 



As regards the decrease in the number of seals, there is little to say. 

 All persons who have visited the islands in recent years are agreed that a 

 decrease has taken place, and I found no reason to dispute this conclusion. 

 Being on the grouiul during only one season, I was unable of course 

 to make comparative observations, but the condition of the rocks and. 

 herbage back of the present rookeriestestities in an unmistakable man- 

 ner to the fact of their greater magnitude in i)ast years. To take one 

 instance: On the great inclined plain or "parade ground" on the reef, 

 which is now covered with low grass and flowers, and from a little dis- 

 tance resembles a lawn of large extent, the cavities of the lava bowl- 

 ders are tilled with a dull felt like substance, which upon examination 

 proves to be comi^osed chiefly of hairs of fur seals interwoven and 

 matted down. This substance could not be made up from stray hairs 



