4 FUR-SEAL HERD OF ALASKA. 



route and make a thorough examination into the condition of the 

 fur-seal herd thereon as we should find it and into all details of the 

 conduct of the public business thereon since May 1, 1890, up to date. 



We therefore proceeded direct to Seattle, Wash., and took passage 

 on the Nome steamer Victoria, which sailed July 1, 3.40 p. m. As 

 this vessel never stops at the seal islands, through the Idndness of 

 the Secretary of the Treasury we were met in Onimak Pass on July 

 7 last and taken on board the United States revenue cutter Tahoma, 

 Capt. Chiswell, who landed us at St. Paul Island on July 8 last. 



Agreeably to our instructions, we at once took up and finished 

 the following subjects of direct personal study and inA^estigation : 



I. JkJv lb to 20. — A personal survey was made of every one of the 

 17 breeding grounds or "rookeries" of the fur seals on St. George 

 and St. Paul Islands. We looked into every harem, and made as 

 reasonable nnd accurate a count of the bulls and cows therein as men 

 of common sense can make.^ We found this herd to-da}^ is so far 

 depleted from its form of 1872, and then of 1890, that the same 

 methods of enumeration, which must be used as they were used then, 

 by Mr. Elliott, when there were 4,700,000 and then later 1,000,000 

 seals, could not be employed; so, a careful estimate and countmg of 

 the adult breedmg seals in each harem, when they were not "massed," 

 was made by us, and it gives the following figures and — 



(g) Has developed the fact that only a minute fraction of the 

 pro])cr number of young bulls were seen on the breeding grounds, 

 and that the old bulls thereon were so few and far between that they 

 often had harems of 100 to 120 females; that the average harem 

 was at least 55 cows,- instead of being 20, which is the normal number 

 when the herd is in its best form. 



ih) This situation u]) there, as above stated, makes the case fairly 

 desperate, and it would speedil}^ result in the complete extermination 

 of the male breeding life of these Pribilof preserves and "rookeries" 

 if it were not for the close time now ordered by law of August 24, 

 1912, which forces a total suspension of all killijig of young male 

 seals on the islands, except for the food of natives, duruig the next 

 five years. 



(c) There are some 56,000 cows on the St. Paul breedmg grounds 

 and about 16,000 on St. George, or 72,000 pupping cows this season 

 of 1913. To this number we may safelv add some 7,000 nubiles, 

 makmg m all about 80,000 cows for this^ear of 1913. The 72,000 

 pups of 1913 (less about 2 per cent death rate for natural causes), or 

 70,000 pups m romid numbers, and some 1,400 old bulls, with less 



1 We gave the subject of the "counting" of "live pups" with a view to getting a fair idea of its sense 

 and accuracy in determining the numbers of breeding seals on these Pribilof rookeries verv close attention. 

 A careful study of the work as it has been done on St. George and St. Paul Islands, begianiag in 1901 

 and ending m 1912, warrants our statement that it is not an accurate census when said to be so made. It 

 is an estimate only, and one that is arrived at by making a highlv injurious disturbance on the breeding 

 grounds; it should be prohibited as idle and positively detrimental. The unanimous objection of the 

 natives to this job of "eomiting" live pups as one of the chief causes of injury to the herd is expressed in 

 detail. (See Exhibit E postea.) 



That the men who have officially done this work of "counting live' pups for an "accurate" census 



since 1901 to date do not believe in it, and think it is inaccurate and should be stopped, is well exhibited 



by copies of then- entries made officially m the journals of St. George and St. Paul. Some of these we 



submit m proof of the above, as Exhibit F postea. -^ 



r 2 This average is misleading, in fact, though it is the only figure which can be used, unless it is qualified ) 



k as follows: For instance, take a series of harems on the reef, between stations F and E; here there are 25;/ 



1 1 bull has 200 cows, 6 bulls have each more than 100, 3 bulls have each 50, 10 bulls have from 12 to 25 cows^ 



y each, 3 bulls only 2 cows, and 2 bulls have none; thus 25 bulls, 1,136 cows, or average of 45 cows to a bull. ( 



\ Ihat IS, m truth, not so. There are 10 Ijulls with 1,050 cows, or 100 cows each, while the other 15 bulls ) 



/have but 180 cows between them. As thev do not meddle with anv cows except as hauled out m their/ 



Respective harems, the average distribut ion of service, at 45 cows to the bull, is wholly misleading. _/ 



