APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 581 



of Nipon Island. . . . [In 1881] we landed on two small islands to 

 the northward of Karaginski, and though we found no fur-seals, we 

 found a great many skeletons and skulls ashore there ; the skulls were 

 all broken up as if they had been clubbed. ... In 1884 we went 

 from Karaginski Island to Yokohama, getting a few seals on the Moo- 

 shir Eocks. ... In 1885 I went out as master of the 'Penelope,' 

 and discovered a new rookery on Eaikoke Island, one of the Kurile 

 group. We got about 3,500 skins there. ... In 1886 I was again 

 master of the 'Penelope,' and visited Eaikoke Island, Moo-shir Eocks, 

 and Shed-noi, but got only about 500 seals." 



Captain A. G. Folger. — "Besides the rookeries on the Commander 

 Islands and Eobbeu Eeef, I know of hauling-out places — not rookeries. 

 One place was a little island called Eaikoke, right in the middle of the 

 Kurile group. Vessels went there every year sea-otter and sea-lion 

 hunting, but no seals had ever been seen there ; but in 1886 [1885], when 

 on the 'Penelope,' Cai^tain Miner, we were surprised to find thousands 

 of seals hauled out there. I had been at this place for the three previous 

 seasons ; there must have been 12,000 or 15,000 seals — among them 700 

 or 800 pups. We took 4,000 skins, and had not salt to cure more. . . . 

 Captain Snow, in 1879 I think it was, found seals on Moo-shir Eocks. 

 I and all the other hunters had been there the year before and other 

 years, but never saw seals. ... I know from the experience I have 

 had that it is a common thing for seals on that side to haul out on new 

 grounds, and every schooner always made a point of stopping at every 

 barren rock to have a look for seals." 



William Hermann states that two years ago (1890) he was in the 

 Okhotsk Sea, and his schooner got 283 seals on the Island of St. lona, 

 and, altogether, 700 seals were got there that year by three schooners, 

 and last year he was there and got 551 in the schooner "Arctic." 

 These were got hauled up on the rocks, and were first discovered by 

 Captain Pine, of the "Arctic," in 1889. Eight years ago Captain Peter- 

 sen, of the schooner "Diana," of Yokohama, was there, and there were 

 no seals there. 



S. L. Beclcwith says: "I remember there was a seal rookery on Ketoy 

 Island, one of the Kurile group ; that was about 1873 or 1874. I have 

 been there since, and they are all destroyed." 



Warren F. Upson. — "Commenced killing fur-seals as a business about 

 thirteen years ago. . . . Was otter-hunting, principally among the 

 Kurile group, up to the time I commenced seal-hunting, and was as 

 familiar with all the Islands of the group as I am with the streets of 

 this city, from Cape Nogshof to Kamchatka, and know that there were 

 no rookeries at that time on those islands. I know Eaikoke, Moo-shir, 

 and Shed-noi Eocks, and to my knowledge there were no rookeries on 

 them during my otter-hunting days, but I have learned since that 

 Captain Miner has taken a large number of seals on some of those 

 rocks." 



Adolplie F. Carlson. — "I hunted otter along the Kurile Islands from 

 1872 till 1883, and know that up to 1879 there were no rookeries on 

 Eaikoke Island or Moo-shir Eocks, and seals up to that time never 

 hauled up on either of these islands to breed, but I learn they were 

 found there in 1880 or 1881." 



Frederick Crocker. — "I first hunted among the Kurile Islands in 

 1881, and found rookeries on the Shed-noi and Moo-shir Eocks and 

 Eaikoke Island, and we made good takes, but cannot say now exactly 

 how many; that year I was in the 'Diana' sailing from Yokohama." 



