50 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. ■ 



Tlie discovery, at the close of the season of 1872, of this law of distrilmtioii, jjave me at once the clue I was 

 searching for, in order to take steps by which I could arrive at a sound conclusion as to the entire number of 

 seals herding on the island. 



I noticed, and time has confirmed my observation, that the period for taking these boundaries of the rookeries, 

 so as to show this exact margin of expansion at the week of its greatest volume, or when they are as full as they 

 are to be for the season, is between the 10th and 20th of July every yearj not a day earlier, and not many days 

 later. After the 20th of Jidy the regular system of compact, even organization breaks up. The seals then scatter 

 out in pods or clusters, the pups leading the way, straying far back — the same number instantly covering twice 

 and thrice as much ground as they did the day or week before, when they lay in solid masses and were marshaled 

 on the rookery-ground proper. 



There is no more difflculty in surveying these seal-margins during this week or ten days in July, than there 

 is in drawing siglits along and around the curbs of a stone-fence surrounding a field. The breeding-seals remain 

 perfectly quiet under your eyes all over the rookery, and almost within your touch, everywhere on the outside of 

 their territory that you may stand or walk. The margins of massed life, as I have indicated on the topographical 

 surveys of these breeding-grounds of St. Paul and St. George, are as clean cut and as well defined against the soil 

 and vegetation, as is the shading on my maps. There is not the least difficulty in making the surveys, and in 

 maldog- them correctly. 



Now, with a knowledge of the superficial area of these breeding-grounds, the way is clearly open to a very 

 interesting calculation as to the number of fur-seals upon them. I am well aware of the fact, when I enter 

 upon this discussion, that I cannot claim perfect accuracy, but, as shadowing my plan of thought and method of 

 comjjutation, I propose to present evei-y step in the processes which have guided me to the result. 



EooKERY-sPACE occupiKD BY SINGLE SEALS. — When the adult males and females, fifteen or twenty of the 

 latter to every one of the former, have arrived upon the rookery, I thinlc an area a little less than two square feet 

 for each female may be considered as the superficial space required by each animal with regard to its size and 

 in obedience to its habits; and this limit may safely be said to be over the mark. Now, every female, or cow, 

 on this two square feet space, doubles herself by bringing forth her young; and in a few days or a week, perhaps, 

 after its birth, the cow takes to the water to wash and feed, and is not back on this allotted space one-fourth of 

 the time again during the season. In this way, is it not clear that the females almost double their number on the 

 rookery-grounds, without causing the expansion of the same beyond the limits that would be actually required, did 

 they not bear any young at all"? For every 100,000 breeding-seals, there will be foiind more than 85,000 females, 

 and less than 15,000 males; and in a few weeks after the hinding of these females, they will show for themselves; 

 that is, for this 100,000, fully 180,000 males, females, and young instead, on the same area of ground occupied 

 previously to the birth of the pups. 



It must be borne in mind, that perhaps 10 or 12 per cent, of the entire number of females were yearlings last 

 season, and come up on to these breeding-grounds as virgins for the first time during this season — as two-year 

 old cows; they of course bear no young. 



The males being treble and quadruple the physical bulk of the females, require about four feet square for their 

 use of this same rookery-ground, but as they are less than one-fifteenth the number of the females, much less, in 

 fact, they therefore occupy only one-eighth of the space over the breeding-ground, where we have located the 

 supposed 100,000; this surplus area of the males is also more than balanced and equalized by the 15,000 or 20,000 

 virgin females which come on to this rookery for the first time to meet the males. They come, rest a few days or a 

 week, and retire, leaving no young to show their presence on the ground. 



Taking all these points into consideration, and they are features of fiict, T quite safely calculate upon an average 

 of two square feet to every animal, big and little, on the breeding-grounds, as the initial point upon which to base 

 an intelligent computation of the entire number of seals before us. Without following this system of enumeration, 

 a person may look over these swarming mjriads between Southwest point and Novastoshnah, guessing vaguely and 

 wildly, at any figure from one million up to ten or twelve millions, as has been done repeatedly. How few peo^ile 

 know what a million really is ; it is very easy to talk of a million, but it is a tedious task to count it off, and makes 

 one's statements as to "millions" decidedly more conservative after the labor has been accomplished. 



Eeview of the kookeries of St. Paul. — Before summing up the grand total, I shall now, in sequence, 

 review each one of the several rookeries of St. Paul, taking them in their order as they occur, going north from the 

 Eeef point. The accompanying maps show the exact area occupied by the breeding-seals and their youag in the 

 season of 1874, which is the date of my latest field-work on the Pribylov islands. 



The Reef kookeuy. — By reference first to the general map, it will be observed that this large breeding- 

 ground, on that grotesquely-shaped neck which ends in the Eeef point, is directly contiguous to the village — indeed, 

 it may be fairly said to be right under the lee of the houses on the hill. It is one of the most striking of all the 

 rookeries, owing probably to the fact that on every side it is sharjdy and clearly exposed to the vision, as the 

 circuit is made in boats. Areach of very beautiiul drifting sand, a quarter of a mile from the village hill to the Eeef 

 bluffs, separates the breeding-grounds proper from the habitations of the people. These Zoltoi sands are, however, 



