FUE-SEAL HEED OF ALASKA. 73 



We approach this rookery from station A of the 1890 survey, and 

 we find that to station B every vestige of the fur-seal herd then 

 existing in 1890 has entirely disappeared. ^ 



There is not a single pod of holluschickie on these grounds. From 

 station B to station C, where a large hauling of holluschickie was 

 made in 1890, and thence ranging up the hillside there is not a single 

 holluschak upon it to-day. 



We find from station C to station D a remnant of the hillside rookery 

 only, consisting of some 2,500 cows and 22 bulls, with only one idle 

 bull in sight — not a single young 6-year-old or 5-year-old bull in the 

 water or on the land behind the rookery. This is the most signifi- 

 cant, complete dearth of all surplus male breeding life that we have 

 yet met on this survey. The estimate of 2,500 cows is not excessive^ 

 but is very fair. They are bunched together practically, immediately 

 at the foot of the bluffs, at station D, and are semimassed part way 

 up the hill, half way to station D. 



This completes the survey of the rookeries on St. George Island. 



To recapitulate . — For Zapadnie rookery, July 18, 1913, we find 22 

 bulls, 2,500 cows, 2,250 pups. Season of 1890 there were 150 bulls, 

 6,000 cows, 5,500 pups; season of 1874 there were 559 bulls, 9,000 

 cows, 8,250 pups. 



CENSUS OF STARRY ARTEEL ROOKERY. 



[Field notes to accompany chart and survey of conditions of Starry Arteel rookery, St. George Island, 

 Pribilof group, July 18, i9l3, by Henry W. Elliott and A. F. Gallagher special agents House Committee 

 on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce.] 



(The condition of the rookery when comparison is made with that 

 of 1890, is founded upon the published official survey made bv 

 Henry W. Elliott, July 10, 1890, and duly pubUshed as H. Doc. No. 

 175, 54th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 51, 52, and 53.) 



As we approach tne sea foot of this rookery, we find a pod of at 

 least 3,000 holluschickie [and on the surf-washed point of Starry 

 Arteel, 400 or 500 more, mostly yearlings]. We find here one solid 

 rookery mass; it is the most perfect of its kind to-day on these 

 rookeries; from the foot of Starry Arteel Hill (of the 1890 survey), 

 it rests on the same lines of 1890, but still within the outer lines half 

 way back between station G and station O. On that area there are 

 about 80 bulls with harems massing in the aggregate at least 4,500 cows. 

 The most encouraging sign seen here is the advanced movement of 

 two young bulls with a cow each, lying just 10 or 15 feet outside of 

 this massed rookery margin ; thus they are leading the way for the 

 overflow next year, which most likely will come to that line. As with 



I The complete disappearance of Zapadnie (St. George) rookery from its chief location and numbers 

 here in 1S73 is clearly exposed bv this survey of 1913, as given above: and that makes the following descrip- 

 tion of the same as it was in 1873 of interest (p. 49, H. Doc. No. 175, 54 Cong., 1st sess.): 



"Zapadnie rookery (lS7:?-74: its condition and appearance July, 1S74)): Directly across the island (St. 

 George) from its north shore to Zapadnie Bay, a little over 5 miles from the village, is a point where the 

 southern blufl walls of the island turn north and drop quickly down from their lofty elevation in a suc- 

 cession of heavy terraces to an expanse of rocky flat bordered by a sea sand beach. Just between that sand 

 beach and these terraces, however, is a stretch of some 2,000 feet of low, rocky shingle, which borders the 

 flat country back of it, and upon which the surf breaks free and boldly. Midway between the two pomts 

 (i. e., blutfs and sand beach) is the rookery, and a small detachment of it rests on the direct slope_of the 

 blufi itself to the southward, while in and around the rookery, falling back to some distance, the hollus- 

 chickie are found." , ,. 



This complete elimination of Zapadnie rookery July 18, 1913, from its main location between stations 

 A and B, where it had been so well located, to that patch on the blutT as found in 1913 is heightened as to 

 danger by the spectacle presented of some 2,.50O cows there now with only 22 bulls to serve them and not 

 a young "male seal in sight anywhere. 



