AMPHIBIAlSr MILLIONS. 327 



premises after they have studied the habit and disposition of the 

 rookeries ; hence, it is a positive and tenable statement, that no 

 danger of the shghtest apj^reciable degree of injury to the inter- 

 ests of the Government on the Seal Islands of Alaska exists, as long- 

 as the present law protecting it, and the management executing it, 

 continues. 



These fur-seals of the Pribylov grouj), after leaving the islands 

 in the autumn and early winter, do not visit land again until the 

 time of their return, in the following spring and early summer, to 

 these same rookery and hauling-grounds, unless they touch, as they 

 are navigating their lengthened journey back, at the Russian Isl- 

 ands, Copper and Bering, seven lumdred miles to the westward of 

 the Pribylov group. They leave our islands by independent squads, 

 each one looking out for itself. Aj^parently all turn by common 

 consent to the south, disappearing toward the horizon, and are 

 soon lost in the vast expanse below, where they spread themselves 

 over the entire Pacific as far south as the 48th and even the 

 47th jjarallels of north latitude : within this immense area between 

 Japan and Oregon, doubtless, many extensive submarine fishing- 

 shoals and banks are known to them ; at least, it is definitely 

 understood that Bering Sea does not contain them long when they 

 depart from the breeding rookeries and the hauling-grounds there- 

 in. While it is carried in mind that they sleep and rest in the 

 water with soundness and with the greatest comfort on its surface, 

 and that even when arovmd the land, during the summer, they 

 frequently put off from the beaches to take a bath and a quiet 

 snooze just beyond the surf, we can readily agree that it is no in- 

 convenience whatever, when the reproductive functions have been 

 discharged, and their coats renewed, for them to stay the balance 

 of the time in their most congenial element — the briny deep. 



That these animals are preyed upon extensively by killer-whales 

 {Orca gladiator), in especial, and by sharks, and probably other 

 submarine foes now unknown, is at once evident ; for, were they 

 not held in check by some such cause, they would, as they exist 

 to day on St. Paul, quickly multiply, by arithmetical progression, 

 to so great an extent that the island, nay, Bering Sea itself, could 

 not contain them. The present annual killing of one hundred 

 thousand out of a yearly total of over a million males does not, 

 in au appreciable degree, diminish the seal-life, or interfere in 

 the slightest with its regular, sure perpetuation on the breeding- 



