Auvéust 10, 1899] 
NATURE 355 
passes through the channels of the Aleutian chair into the 
Pacific, ranging as far south as Southern California, and return- 
ing to their summer haunts along the American coast. Next in 
importance is the Komandorski herd, the members of which 
breed upon Bering and Medui islands in that group, migrating 
in winter down the eastern coast of Japan, and returning by the 
same route the following summer. Smallest of all is the 
Robben Island herd, now restricted to Robben, or Tiuleni 
Island, in the Sea of Okhotsk, just south of Saghalien, but 
which formerly also colonised four islands of the Kurile chain. 
The line of migration of this herd lies through the Sea of Japan, 
so that it never enters the open Pacific. Whereas the Pribyloff 
herd, which is the one to which the present Report, so far as 
published,' mainly refers, is the property of the Government of 
the United States, the other two belong to Russia. So far as 
can be ascertained, the Komandorski and Pribyloff herds were 
unknown to man (except during migration) till the discovery of 
the former islands by Bering in 1741, and of the latter by Pribyloff 
in 1786. 
Hitherto the seals of all three herds have been regarded as 
constituting a single species, Ofaria (or Callorhinus) ursina, 
although differences in colour, shape, and the character of the 
fur have long been known to exist between them. From the 
complete isolation of the three herds, and the apparent absence 
of intermediate forms, Dr. Jordan, the American Commissioner, 
feels justified in regarding them as indicating as many distinct 
species, the leading characteristics of which are indicated in the 
Report. The typical zszva is represented by the Komandorski 
herd, while to the Pribyloff form is assigned the name a/ascana 
(alascanus if Callorhinus be recognised as a genus) and to the 
Robben Island seals that of cz¢/ens¢s. To our own thinking it 
would have been better if these three forms had been regarded 
as subspecies, and that such a classification at one time occurred 
to Dr. Jordan, seems to be indicated by the circumstance that 
the page (45) of the Report on which they are described is 
headed ‘‘ The Subspecies of Fur-Seal.” 
The fact that the fur-seals resort every summer in great 
numbers to the Pribyloffs for breeding purposes is doubtless 
well known to the great majority of our readers, but as some 
new facts in regard to their period of residence on the islands 
and their habits while there are recorded in the Report, a brief 
sketch of this period of their existence may not be out of place. 
The old breeding ‘‘ bulls” are the first to put in an appear- 
ance, their average date of landing being about the first of May. 
The younger bulls do not land till the arrival of the ‘‘ cows,” 
when they ‘haul out” and pass round the ‘‘ rookeries” to 
places in the rear, or fight their way through the territories of 
the old bulls in possession. The ‘‘ bachelors,” or immature 
males, begin to arrive about the same time as the old bulls, 
usually making their appearance according to age; the smaller 
seals beginning to predominate after July 9. The older bachelors 
being alone killed in the Pribyloffs, as many as possible are 
slaughtered before the arrival of their younger brethren, regular 
driving usually commencing about:June 1. It is about June ro 
that the adult cows begin to arrive, their appearance and land- 
ing, like that of the adult bulls, being gradual. Their arrival is 
not, as has been stated to be the case, an occasion of fighting 
among the old bulls for their possession. As a rule, a female 
about to land reconnoitres the shore by swimming backwards 
and forwards, and then lands on the rocks, where she is im- 
mediately taken in charge by the nearest bull. If a bull dis- 
covers her while attempting to land, she endeavours to escape ; 
but if this is impracticable, she submits and takes her station 
on shore beside him. When a bull once obtains a cow, his 
station becomes an objective point for all the others landing in 
the vicinity, and a ‘‘harem” is thus formed; large ‘‘harems” 
being thus constituted in the neighbourhood of favourite 
landing-places. Soon after landing the cows give birth to their 
“* pups ” (one in number to each cow). 
In the larger rookeries as many as a hundred cows may go 
to the formation of a single harem; and so long as they 
remain quietly resting before and after the birth of their pups, 
the one bull has no difficulty in keeping them under control. 
But as soon as the pairing-season sets in (which it does very 
soon after the birth of the pups) the old bull is unable to 
manage his harem, and the ‘‘idle bulls” around enter the circle. 
With the ‘‘ podding” (collection in masses) and scattering of 
the pups and the influx of fresh cows, the area occupied by the 
1 Two other parts of the Report are announced, the second (iy.) of which 
will deal with the Komandorski and Robben Island herds. 
NO. 1554, VOL. 60] 
seals gradually extends, and fresh bulls are taken into the circle, 
until the utmost limits of expansion are reached. 
The population of breeding cows gradually increases from the 
beginning of the season till about the middle of July, from 
which period it diminishes till the close of the breeding-season, 
about August 1, the height of the season being about July 15, 
when the maximum number of breeding cows are on shore. It 
is not, however, to be assumed that by any means all the cows 
are then on land—quite the contrary. From about June 10 or 
12 onwards fresh cows are constantly arriving at the rookeries, 
each cow making a sojourn of about ten or twelve days, after 
which she starts on her first excursion to the feeding-grounds, 
distant between one and two hundred miles. The height of 
the season accordingly means merely that the stream of arriving 
cows is about counterbalanced by the departing one. 
Throughout the breeding-season a band of sleeping, playing, 
and swimming seals skirts the sea-front of each rookery, 
the majority of these being cows, although some are bachelors. 
This band includes the arriving and departing cows ; the former 
gradually edging themselves nearer and nearer to the shore, 
while the latter tend to the seaward fringe. So stealthily is 
the landing and the departure accomplished, that it is a very 
difficult matter to observe a cow either in the act of landing or 
of setting out to sea, One reason of the loitering before land- 
ing seems to be to allow time for the complete digestion of the 
food, which always takes place while at sea. As the bachelors 
likewise make periodical journeys to the feeding-grounds, it is 
evident that it is only the bulls which fast throughout the 
breeding-season ; and for the purpose of enduring this, they 
accumulate a thick layer of blubber previous to landing. 
On landing from one of her feeding expeditions the cow calls 
lustily for her pup, on finding which she forthwith proceeds to 
nurse it, the pup then departing and taking no further notice 
of its parent till it again requires a meal. As the majority of 
the cows are at sea, a landing cow is immediately surrounded 
by hungry, and it may be starving, pups, who are driven away 
with decidedly savage treatment. The pups are entirely de- 
pendent upon their own mother’s milk till about November, 
the Commission scouting the idea that there is any promiscuous 
feeding of the pups by the cows, or that the former subsist in 
part on a vegetable diet. 
Mention remains to be made of the landing of the yearling 
and two-year-old females, whose brothers come to the islands 
about the first of July and spend their time on the hauling 
grounds. The two-year-old females reach the rookeries about 
August 1, and take up their places either in the old harems, or 
in fresh ones in front of and behind the regular breeding- 
grounds. Here they are taken charge of by young bulls, and 
after a short sojourn return to the water. Although the yearling 
cows apparently arrive with the two-year-olds, they do not 
make their appearance on the rookeries much before September, 
and then spend their time in ranging over the Jatter and play- 
ing with the pups, which by this time have become strong 
swimmers. 
In regard to the breaking up of the breeding-season, the old 
harem-bulls, who have fasted from the beginning of May, begin 
to desert the rookeries for the feeding-grounds about July 25, 
their places being taken by the idle bulls. By some time 
between August 5 and 10, all the adult bulls have departed ; the 
breeding-grounds being then occupied by the younger bulls and 
bachelors, who, however, soon return to the sand beaches. At 
the first approach of winter, which usually occurs in November, 
the cows and pups start on their journey southward. The 
bachelors linger for some time longer, in some years a con- 
siderable number remaining till the end of December or even 
well on in January ; while in mild seasons some may be seen all 
through the winter. As a rule, however, November ends the 
sojourn of the seals on the Pribyloffs, and, class by class, they 
set out on their winter migration. 
Such is, very briefly, the life-history of the fur-seals during 
their sojourn around and on the Pribyloffs. We now proceed 
to notice, with equal brevity, the decline which has of recent 
years taken place in the numbers of the herd, the reasons for 
such decline, and the remedies suggested for its recovery. 
Since these islands came under the sway of the United States 
Government only bachelors of a certain age have been allowed 
to be killed on shore. From 1869 to 1889 the sealing rights 
were leased to the Alaska Commercial Company, whose annual 
quota of skins was limited to 100,000, of which 75,000 were to 
be taken on St. Paul and the remainder on St. George. On 
