50 FUE-SEAL HERD OF ALASKA. 



batch or mass of harems which will total about 1,500 cows and 

 about 40 bulls; and, lyino- on the hill slope this side of them, there are 

 about 800 to 900 holluschickie, all down in, under, and lying on the 

 old breeding ground of 1874, which is totally abandoned.' 



We now proceed from station E to stations F and G. No polse- 

 catchie and no idle bulls on this ground are seen. Right at the base 

 of jags F and G of the 1890 survey is an aggregate of seven harems 

 with not to exceed 200 females. '^ There are about 20 vagrant bulls 

 bunched in with the holluschickie that we have just enumerated. 



At th? foot of station B, and over to station C of th'^ 1890 survey, 

 we find a series of hirems right at the surf margin which will carry 

 about 3,500 cows and about 60 bulls. That completes the sum total, 

 area, and location of the hill-side rookery life of to-day as compared 

 with th? survey of 1890. Here we have sf^en a pod of 25 or 30 va- 

 grant bulls closely lymg in with th> holluschickie which we have men- 

 tioned, th3 largest group of such spent male life that we have seen 

 thus far. There are no polsecatchie m th? rear and no idle 6-year- 

 old bulls. There is no evidence of fighting, and the sandy area imme- 

 diately under station B, and reaching to station B, carries no sign of 

 a dead pup, or sand worm mort dity, although these seals are resting 

 on that sand just as they did in Dr. Jordan's time; and the stones 

 which were placed there later by Mr. Judge are now wholly surrounded 

 where not hidden by th? sand which he thought he had covered by 

 plantmg those rocks. From station C of the 1890 survey is the same 

 belt margm to-day under th'„^ Tolstoi Bluffs that was existent there 

 in 1890. It has a fringe of harems irregularly sprawled just above 

 the surf wash and carries, it is safe to say, at least 3,500 to 4,000 

 cows and about 50 bulls, with no idle bulls of any description in 

 sight or any polsecatchie — not one. 



To recapitulate. — For Tolstoi rookery, July 12, 1913, we find 157 

 bulls, 8,750 cows, 7,850 pups. Season of 1890, there were 850 bulls, 

 31,200 cows, 28,000 pups; season of 1874, there were 6,450 bulls, 

 115,000 cows, 105,000 pups. 



The particular manner and method followed by Elliott in getting 

 these figures of seal population for those large rookeries of 1872- 

 1874, and relatively large in 1890, when contrasted with their form 

 in 1913, is fully set forth by the details ^iven in House Document 

 No. 175, Fifty-fourth Congress, first session, pa^es 29-57 inclusive. 

 The following illustration of his survey of Tolstoi in 1872, and again 



1 The Tolstoi hill slope of 1872 is described, in lS74,by Elliott (pp. 53-54 Monograph Seal Islands) as follows: 



"Directly to the west from Lukannou, up along and around the head of the lagoon is the seal path road 

 over which the natives drive the holluschickie from Tolstoi. We follow this and take up our position on 

 any one of the several lofty grass-grown sand dunes, close to and overlooking another rookery ot^ great size. 

 This is Tolstoi. 



"We have here the greatest hill slope of breeding seals on either island, peculiarly massed on the abniptly 

 sloping flanks of Tolstoi Ridge, as it falls to the sands of English Bay and ends suddenly in the precipitous 

 termination of its own name, Tolstoi Point. Here the seals are in some places crowded up to the enormous 

 depth of 500 measured feet from the sea margin of the rookery to its upper boundary and limitations; and, 

 when viewed as I viewed it in July ( 1872), taking the lines and" angles as shown on the accompanying sketch 

 map, I considered it with the bluffs terminating it at the south, and its ))old sweep which ends on the sands 

 of English Bay, to be the most picturesque, though it is not the most impressive, rookery on the island — - 

 especially so, when that parade gioimd, lying just back and over the point, and upon its table rock surface 

 is reached by the climbing seals as they haul up from the sea below. 



"If the observer will glance at the map he will see that this parade groimd in question lies directly over 

 and about 150 feet above the breeding seals immediately under it. * * 



" From Tolstoi at this point, sweeping around 3 miles to Zapadine, is the broad sand reach of English Bay, 

 upon which and back over its gently rising fiats are the great hauling grounds of the holluschickie, which 

 I have indicated on the general map and to which I have made reference. * * * Looking at the myriads 

 of bachelor seals spread out in their restless hundreds and hundreds of thousands upon this ground, one 

 feels the utter impotency of verbal description, and reluctantly shuts his note and sketch books to gaze 

 upon it with renewed fascination and perfect helplessness." 



