THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. G3 



or elude the murderous teeth and carnivorous attacks of basking sharks* and killer- whales f. By these agencies, 

 during their absence from the islands until their reappearance in the following year, and in July, they are so 

 l^erceptibly diminished in number that I do not think, fairly considered, more than one-half of the legion which left 

 the ground of their birth, last October, came up the next July to these favorite landing-places; that is, only 250,000 

 of them return out of the 500,000 born last year. The same statement, in every res])ect, applies to the going and 

 the coming of the 500,000 female pups, which ai'e identical in size, shape, and behavior. 



As yearlings, however, these 250,000 survivors, of last year's birth, have become strong, lithe, and active 

 swimmers; and, when they again leave the haulinggrounds as before, in the fall, they are fully as able as are the 

 older class to take care of themselves; and when they reappear next year, at least 225,000 of them safely return in 

 the second season after birth; from this on I believe that they live out their natural lives of fifteen to twenty years 

 each ; the death-rate now caused by the visitation of marine enemies affecting them, in the aggregate, but slightly. 

 And again, the same will hold good touching the females, the average natural life of which, however, I take to be 

 only nine or ten years each. 



Out of these 225,000 j'onng males, we are required to save only one-fifteenth of their number to pass over to the 

 breeding-grounds, and meet there tlie 225,000 young females; in other words, the polygamous habit of this animal 

 is such that, by its own volition, I do not think that more than one male annually out of fifteen born is needed on 

 the breeding-grounds in the future; but in my calculations, to be within the margin and to make sure that I save 

 two-year-old males enough every season, 1 will more than double this ])roportion, and set aside every fifth one of 

 tlie young males in question; that will leave 180,000 seals, in good condition, that can be safely killed every year, 

 without the slightest injury to the perpetuation of the sto(5k itself forever in all its original integrity.! 



In the above showing I have put the very extreme estimate upon the loss sustained at sea by the pup-seals 

 too large, I am morally certain; but, in attempting to draw this line safely, I wish to place the matter in the 

 very worst light in which it can be put, and to give the seals the full benefit of every doubt. Surely I have 

 clearly presented the case, and certainly no one will qiiestion the premises after they have studied the habit 

 and disposition of the rookeries; hence, it is a positive and tenable statement, that no danger of the slightest 

 ai)preciable degree of injury to the interests of the government on the seal-islands of Alaska, exists as long as the 

 present law ])rotecting it, and the management executing it, continues. 



Course pursiu^d by the seals after leaving the islands. — These fur-seals of the Pribylov group, after 

 leaving the islands in the autumn and early winter, do not visit land again until the time of their return in the 

 following spring and early summer, to these same rookery- and haulinggrounds, unless they touch, as they are 

 navigating their lengthened journey back, at the Eussian Copper, and Bering islands, 700 miles to tlie westward 

 of the Pribylov group. They leave the islands by independent squads, each one looking out for itself; apparently 

 all tm-n by common consent to the south, disappearing toward the horizon, and are soon lost in the vast expanse 

 below, where they spread themsehes over the entire North Pacific as far south as the -tSth and even the 47th 

 parallels of north latitude. Over the immense area between Japan and Oregon, doubtless, many extensive 

 submarine fishing-shoals and banks are known to them ; at least, it is definitely understood that Bering sea does 



* Somniosns vticrocephaliis. Some of these sharks are of very large size, and when caught by the Indians of the northwest coast, 

 basking or asleep on the surface of the sea, they will, if transfixed by the native's harpoons, take a whole tieet of canoes in tow and 

 run swiftly with them several hours before exhaustion enables the savages to finally dispatch them. A Hudson Bay trader, AVilliam 

 Manson (at Ft. Alexander, in 1865), told me that his father had killed one in the smooth waters of Millbauk sound, which measun'd "^4 

 feet iu length, and its liver alone yielded 3t) gallons of oil. The Somniosns lays motionless for long intervals in calm waters of the North 

 Paeitic, just under and at the surface, with its dorsal fin clearly exposed above; what havoc such a carnivorous fish would be likely to 

 effect in a "pod" of youug fur-seals, can be better imagined than described 



f Orca gladiator. While revolving this particular line of inquiry in my mind when, on the ground and among the seals, I 

 involuntarily looked constantly for some sign of disturbauee in the sea which would indicate the presence of an enemy; and, save seeing 

 a few examples of the Orca, I never detected auytbing; if the killer-whale was common here, it would be jiatent to the most casual 

 eye, because it is the habit of this ferocious cetacean to swim so closely at the surface as to show its peculiar sharp, dorsal fin high above 

 the water ; possibly a very superficial observer could and would confound the long, trenchant fluke of the Orca with the stubby node upon 

 the spine of the humpback whale, which that animal exhibits only wlien it is about to dive. Humpbacks feed around the islands, but 

 not couiraouly — they are the exception; they do not, however, molest the seals in any manner whatever; and little squads of these 

 pinnipeds seem to delight themselves by swimming iu endless circles around and under the huge bodies of those whales, frequently leaiung 

 out and entirely over the cetacean's back, as witnessed on one occasion by myself and the crew of the ''Reliance", otf the coast of 

 Kadiak, June, 1874. 



t When regarding the subject in 1872-'73, of ho\v many surplus young males could be wisely taken from the Pribylov stock, I satisfied 

 myself that more than 100,000 could be drawn upon annually for their skins, and hence was impressed wilh the idea that the business 

 might be safely developed to a greater maximum; since Ihen, however, I have been giving attention to the other side of the (lueslion, 

 which involves the market for the skins and the practical working of any sliding scale of increased killing, snch as I then recommended. 

 A careful review of the whole matter modifies my original idea and causes me to think that, all things considered, it is better to " let well 

 enough alone". Although it would be a most interesting commercial experiment to develop the yield of the Pribylov islands to their full 

 capacity, yet, iu view of the anomalous and curious featn^-es of the case, it is wiser to be satisfied with the assured guarantee of 

 perpetuation in all original integrity, which the experience of the last teu years gives us on the present basis of 100,000, than to risk it 

 by possibly doubling the revenue therefrom. Therefore, I am not now in favor of my earlier proposition of gradually increasing the 

 killing, until the maximum number of surplus "hoUusehickie" should be asceriaiued. 



