166 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
Sufficient numbers of seals are always absent from the killing-grounds 
when drives are made which later recruit the ranks of breeding males. 
There is no lack of large males in the breeding rookeries, the reduc- 
tion in breeding females through pelagic sealing being relatively 
greatly in excess of any killing of males on land. During the past five 
years the killings of males on land have been as follows: 1896, 30,654; 
1897, 19,200; 1898, 18,032; 1899, 16,812; 1900, 21,944. The majority 
taken in 1900 were 2-year-olds. Dane the same period the pelagic 
eatch from the American herd, ehteny females, has been as follows: 
1896, 43,917; 1897, 24,322; 1898, 27,689; 1899, 34,647; 1900, 35,427. 
The increased pelagic satches of the past two seasons do not indi- 
eate any inerease in the size of the seal herd, and too much 
importance should not be attached to the continued success of the 
pelagic sealing fleet. The fleet at present is about half the size it was 
a few years ago, and the average per vessel is still good, but it must 
not be supposed that a fleet of the original size could now make such 
eatches as were made formerly. The pelagic catch can not show the 
condition of the seal herd; that can only be known from the condi- 
tions existing on the breeding rookeries. The pelagic catch in 
Bering Sea consists chiefly in nursing females and is followed by a 
loss of pup seals upon the islands equal to the number of females 
killed. The increased catch of the season, with the accompanying 
loss of pups, may be expected to show a great reduction of the seal 
herd upon the islands next season. 
Upon the return of Mr. Townsend a detailed report of the investi- 
gation was made to the Treasury Department. 
NOTE ON THE WHALE FISHERY. 
The American whaling fleet is now composed of 22 vessels in the 
Atlantic Ocean and 18 vessels in the Pacific Ocean. Since 1890 the 
fleet has been gradually reduced from 97 vessels, aggregating 22,464 
tons, to 40 vessels, with a total of 8,746 tons. The decrease in oe 
and tonnage has been caused by withdrawals and the loss of vessels a 
sea in about equal numbers, very few additions having been made i 
the fleet. 
The whaling vessels of the Atlantic Ocean are nearly all engaged 
in the capture of sperm whales, the catch of whalebone being made 
almost entirely by vessels of the Pacifie fleet. In 1900 the yield of 
sperm oil, amounting to 18,525 barrels, and of whale oil, amounting 
to 5,510 barrels, was a little larger than for 1899, but the yield of 
whalebone, amounting to 207,650 pounds, was only two-thirds that of 
the preceding year. 
In 1900 the schooner Robert S. Graham, of New Bedford, returned 
from Kerguelen Island with 2,600 barrels of sea-elephant oil. as 
three voyages have been rina in this fishery during recent years 
