RELATING TO PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 87 



Another practical proof of the fact that the seals were generally 

 increasing- during those years on St. Paul's rsland was ^^^^^ increasing m 

 found in the fact that a large overplus found then^ way issi. 

 to the Island of Otter, a small island about six miles otter i.siand. 

 away, and not included in the Alaska Commercial 

 Company's lease. Otter was not a breeding island, but a loafing and 

 resting place for the "bachelor" seals, which congregated there to the 

 number of several thousands during the season. I noted the move- 

 ment with care, and believed then that with due protection the island 

 would in time have become a breeding island like the others, only to a 

 lesser extent. My views and observations in regard to Otter Island 

 were set out in a special report to the Secretary of the Treasury, dated 

 Aprill, 1882. _.^. ^ . .^ 



My observation in regard to the pup seal life during those years was 

 that the loss from natural causes was exceedingly j,,,^ .^^..^^ p^p^. 

 small. I made frequent visits to the breeding rook- 

 eries during and after the close of the breeding season, and found only 

 a very small number of dead bodies ; it was a rare thing to find a dead pup 

 seal. In one of my official reports I made an estimate of the loss from 

 natural causes, which I fixed, I believe, at only 1 or 2 per cent of all 

 classes. Some of these losses were due to their perhaps too early 

 attempts to swim. When the pup is a few months old 

 the mother seal conducts it to the water and teaches it ^^ '^^""'^%p,S 

 to swim near tbe shore. If a heavy sea is encountered 

 the weak little pup is liable to be thrown by the surf against the rocks 

 and killed, but under natural conditions and with the protection to the 

 rookeries formerly enforced at the islands, the losses from this cause 

 and all others combined (save alone the authorized killing) amounted 

 to an infinitesimal percentage of the whole numbers in the herds. 



The practice formerly prevailed of permitting the native people to 

 kill a very considerable number of four-months' old p^^p^ joined tor food. 

 pups for food. This was done about November m each 

 year, the numbers so killed being 5,000 on St. Paul Island and 1,500 

 on St. George Island. After observation and study, I satisfied myself 

 that the number of pup seals so killed might properly be diminished 

 somewhat, although it could only be done against strong opposition on 

 the part of the native people, who are specially partial to the meat of 

 pup seals, claiming that for purposes of salting and preservation for 

 winter food the meat of the older seals is unfit. I, however, restricted 

 the killing of pups to 3,000 on St. Paul Island and 

 1,000 on St. George Island, upon the condition and «tS.^ ^"^" ™" 

 agreement on the part of the Alaska Commercial 

 Company, which also favored the restriction, that it would supply to the 

 native people, in lieu of tlie pup seal meat taken away, a suificient 

 quantity of corned beef and canned milk to satisfy tlie wants of the 

 inhabitants. Deference was always paid to the wants and the fixed 

 tastes of the native people and their families in this matter of supply- 

 ing young seal meat for their subsistence, for the reason that the entire 

 seal industry at these islands has always depended in so large a meas- 

 ure upon the skill and labor of these people, who have invariably been 

 employed to take the skins, and have no other occupation whatever. In 

 the plethoric condition of the rookeries during the period of my service 

 at the islands, and with the vast numbers of seals of all kinds, there 

 was not any difficulty about the matter of either food seals or the taking 

 of seal skins for commercial purposes. Stringency could only arise by 

 the general destruction of the seal life which has taken place in recent 

 years. 



