230 OFFICIAL REPORTS. 



According to native testimony as shown by the affidavits submitted, 

 the season during' which the sekatch or old bulls go 

 bull'™ 6 ° f passage of through the pusses is from the 15th to the 22nd of Oc- 

 tober They leave the sea ahead of the migrating herd, 

 always travel by themselves, and go very fast. After leaving Bering 

 Sea they go to the.eastward and pass the winter south 

 ^wmter resort of old f TJnimak Island and the Alaska Peninsula and in the 

 Alaska Gulf. During our spring cruise we found large 

 numbers of them off the Mt. Fuirweather region, where they had un- 

 doubtedly wintered. Although I made inquiry of all hunters met with 

 at that time, both white and native, and had a careful lookout kept from 

 the vessel at all times, I could not learn of any number 

 ^outhern limit of oM of old bulls having been seen south of the southern 

 limit of Alaska, and only vague rumors of a limited 

 number being taken annually as far south as Forester Island, near 

 Dixon's Entrance. Polu-sekatch or half-grown bulls are often errone- 

 ously called " old bulls" by white hunters, the name being properly 

 applied only to the old males inhabiting the breeding rookeries. The 

 old bulls are very large, weighing from six to eight hundred pounds, 

 perhaps more. Two were taken by the Gorumi's hunters from the herd 

 encountered off the Mt. Fair weather region, the pelts of which weighed 

 sixty-one and sixty five pounds, respectively. 

 Individuals of the Polu-sekatch are sometimes found with the migra- 

 ting herd of cows, young males, and pups, but by far 

 winter movements the greater part of them, as well as many of the larger 



of half-grown bulls. „ ,° , ,- J ..,,.•. ~ •;■■ < ™ 



Holostyak remain m Bering Sea or m the waters off 

 the coast of Alaska all winter. They are seen during the winter by 

 the natives of Belkofsky, Unga, and Sand Point, when out sea-otter 

 hunting, and are both seen and taken by the Sannak natives through- 

 out the winter. Many Holostyak and Polu-sekatch remain upon the 

 Pribilof Islands until the ice comes down and drives the fish away, 

 when they must search for other feeding grounds. As I have stated 

 in a former report to the honorable the Secretary of the Treasury, I 

 landed upon St. Paul Island about the 24th of January, 1886, and was 

 informed that a "drive" had been made the day previous and a large 

 number of holostyak (about one thousand) killed. 

 But few male seals of more than four years of age accompany the 



migrating herd on its voyage across the Pacific. A 

 ad^t n maies re80rt ° f l ar g e percentage of all the adult male portion of the 



fur-seal herd remain in Alaskan waters throughout the 

 year, spending the time from May until October upon the Pribilof 

 Islands and the balance of the year in Bering Sea and the Pacific Oceau 



near the Alaska coast. The great migrating herd con- 

 Time of passage of sisting of Matkie, Molodaya Matkie, Holostyakie, 



and Koteekie begin to go through the passes about 

 October 22d. The invariable answer made by the native to the ques- 

 tion — a What time do the cows, young males, and pups first begin to 

 go through the passes?" — was " Desya tavo Octyabr ya," October 10th 

 old style or October 22nd new style. At first they are seen in very 

 small numbers; as a rule, I think, but a few stray individuals go 

 through the passes before the first of November, and the herd is not 

 fairly upon the move before the tenth. 



While cruising near the passes during October we saw but five seals 

 in all. On October 20th two were seen, an adult and a pup in the Ber- 

 ing Sea near Uuimak Pass. They had apparently no intention of going 

 out at ouce as they were playing and were in reality swimming away 



