SKAT. LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 141 



noticed from the deck the boats may be cmisiiig over barren uioniid. 

 As a rule, however, the number observed from tlie vessel is small as 

 compared with tbe number sighted from the boats. A vessel while jog- 

 ging- will naturally frighten a great many which lie in her path; the 

 flapping of the canvas and the cieaking an«l slatting of the booms 

 arouse the sleepers long before they can be seen, and give them ample 

 time to escape. In the early days of pelagic sealing the boats used to 

 be stationed at dift'erent distances and in different directions from the 

 vessel, and would drift, waiting for seals to come neai-. This method, 

 however, proving unremunerative, it was given up, and the hunters 

 began to cruise, which custom they have continue<l to follow ever since. 



MANNER OF COUNTING THE SEXES. 



Considerable controversy has arisen from the accounts rendered by 

 sealing captains regarding the proportion of male and female seals 

 taken in the North Pacific Ocean and Bering 8ea. Previous to the 

 time when sealing vessels were required to enter the number of each, 

 sex taken in their official logs little thought was given to this (juestion, 

 and it was always claimed that the two sexes occurred in about equal 

 numbers. All sealers knew which sex predominated, but clung to their 

 original story, and there was no one who could controvert their asser- 

 tions, although there was every reason to doubt them. An order from 

 the United States Treasury Department requiring the catch of all 

 American sealers to be examined on their arrival in port was the 

 means of throwing considerable light on the subject, and the informa- 

 tion gained from this source fully established the fact of the great 

 preponderance of females. 



It has generally been supposed by most sealers, and the view is still 

 entertained by many, that if it were known that a greater number of 

 females than males were taken it would greatly affect and possibly 

 restrict their privileges when the time came for a readjustment of 

 pelagic regulations. The fact has generally been lost sight of that the 

 condition of the rookeries at the end of five years will have the most 

 weight in deciding that matter. 



That pelagic sealers should pay little attention to the sexes of the 

 seals taken was but natural, as they had no object in determining which 

 sex predominated, the thought uppermost in their minds being to cap- 

 ture as many seals as possible. 



No check is placed upon the official logs of the Canadian sealers by 

 the custom-house officials at Victoria, who accept such records as 

 authentic. If the skins landed at Victoria were subjected to the same 

 rigid examination as those landed in United States ports, little or no 

 difference would be found in the projiortion of each sex represented in 

 the catch by the vessels of the two countries. It seems strange that 

 on several occasions when American and Canadian sealers have hunted 

 on the same ground and in close proximity to each other, the catch of 

 the former has always been composed largely of females and the latter 

 of males. There are days when more males than females are taken, 

 but such times are not ti^equent. It is only fair, however, to state that 

 a number of both American and Canadian sealing captains have 

 admitted the truth to the writer, and all United States hunters with 

 whom he has conversed admit that the majority of seals captured off 

 Japan and around the Commander Islands are females. 



During the season of 1894 the schooner Louis Olsen kept an account 

 of the seals taken off" the coast of Japan, and it was found that out of 

 1,600 two-thirds were females. In 1895 the schooner Brenda obtained 



