RELATING TO ST. GEORGE ISLAND. 181 



if ever, leave the islands for that purpose until they start on their 

 migration southward. When the seals are on the breeding grounds 

 they are not easily frightened unless they are too nearly approached, 

 and even then they will go but a short distance if the cause of their 

 fright becomes stationary. 



It is impossible to estimate with any sort of accuracy the number of 

 seals on the Pribilof Islands, because of the seals being ^ ., , ^ 



. . T . . . -, T ' .11 T 1 Impossible to esli- 



constantly in motion, and because the breeding grounds mate number of seals 

 are so covered with broken rocks of all sizes that the "^ islands. 

 density varies. I think all estimates heretofore made are unreliable, 

 and in the case of Elliot and others who have endeavored to make a 

 census of seal life, the numbers are, in my opinion, exaggerated. Meas- 

 urements of the breeding grounds, however, show an increase or de- 

 crease of the number of seals, because the harems are always crowded 

 together as closely as the nature of the ground and temper of the old 

 bulls will permit. My observation has been that there was an exx)an- 

 sion of the rookeries from 1870 up to at least 1879, 

 which ftict I attribute to the careful management of the eJsCm^sTotoTs^^D: 

 Islands by the United States Government. In the year 

 1880 I thought I began to notice a falling off from the year previous of 

 the number of seals on Kortheast Point rookery, but 

 this decrease was so very slight that probably it would igfo?"^"^^ noticed in 

 not have been observed by one less familiar with seal 

 life and its conditions than I; but I could not discover or learn that it 

 showed itself on any of the other rookeries. In 1884 

 and 1885 I noticed a decrease, and it became so marked u^^'"^ '"^ ^^^'^ ^"'^ 

 in 1886 that everyone on the islands saw it. This 

 marked decrease in 1886 showed itself on all the rookeries on both 

 islands. 



Until 1887 or 1888, however, the decrease was not felt in obtaining 

 skins, at which time the standard was lowered from 6 

 and 7 pound skins to 5 and 4J pounds. The hauling a^d of'sf ii." tlken"'^' 

 grounds of Kortheast Point kept up the standard 

 longer than the other rookeries, because, as I believe, the latter rook- 

 eries had felt the drain of open-sea sealing during 1885 and 1886 more 

 than Northeast Point, the cows from the other rookeries having gone 

 to the southward to feed, where the majority of the sealing schooners 

 were engaged in taking seal. There was never while I 

 have been upon the Islands any scarcity of vigorous 

 bulls, there always being a sufficient number to fertilize all the cows com- 

 ing to the Islands. It was always borne in mind by those on the Islands 

 that a sufficient number of males must be preserved for breeding pur- 

 poses, and this accounts partly for the lowering of the standard weight 

 of skins in 1888. The season of 1891 showed that male seals had certainly 

 been in sufficient number the year before, because the pups on the 

 rookeries were as many as should be for the number of cows landing, 

 the ratio being the same as in former years. Then, too, there was a 

 surplus of vigorous bulls ill 1891 who could obtain no j, .^. „ 

 cows. Every care is taken in driving the seals from the "^"i?- 

 hauling to the killing grounds, and, during the regular killing season of 

 June and July, there are no'females driven because, at this season, they 

 are on the breeding rookeries and do not intermingle with the young males. 

 If occasionally one does happen to be in the drive great care is taken 

 not to injure her; the law prohibiting the killing of the female seal is 

 well understood by the natives, and they ar(» thoroughly in sympathy 

 with it. Even were I to request them to kill a female seal they would 



