902 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1068 



often unreasonable, the specialist should remember 

 that Ms scheme of nomenclature to be truly suc- 

 cessful must answer the purposes of others as well 

 as himself. If the specialist conservatively re- 

 tains well-known and natural generic groups he 

 may segregate subgenera indefinitely without re- 

 tarding the progress of exact taxonomy, and, at 

 the same time, without interfering with the less 

 exacting needs of the general zoologist and the 

 amateur. Moreover, further advantage is found 

 in the fact that the percentage of legitimate 

 clianges of names that would confront the mneh- 

 abused amateur would be greatly reduced; for 

 changes of subgeneric names on account of pre- 

 occupation and other causes would in most cases 

 concern only the specialist. 



I could name at least one other leading 

 mammalogist who heartily concurs in the views 

 quoted. So the issue is not exactly one be- 

 tween the "general biologist" and the syste- 

 matist, but is rather one between two differ- 

 ent types of systematists. In this conflict the 

 "general biologist" should, I think, lend his 

 regard for the interests of the scientific public. 



F. B. Sumner 

 ScEipps Institution for Biological Eeseakch, 

 La JOLLA, Califoenia 



THE PROBLEM OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS 



The U. S. Bureau of Fisheries has issued 

 an elaborate and handsomely illustrated 

 report on Alaskan conditions,^ the work of 

 Mr. E. Lester Jones, its deputy commissioner, 

 embodying the results of his investigations 

 during the past summer. The major portion of 

 this work lies outside of the writer's field, but 

 that portion which treats of the fur-seal 

 islands suggests a few words of com m ent from 

 one who has given much time and attention to 

 their problems. 



Mr. Jones thus sums up the Pribilof Islands 

 problem : 



If moral, intellectual and general conditions are 

 to be improved; if the business of the islands is 

 to be carried on along business lines (and surely 

 the proposition of these islands, including the fur- 



1 Eeport of Alaska Investigations in 1914; De- 

 partment of Commerce, Bureau of Fisheries, by E. 

 Lester Jones, Deputy Commissioner of Fisheries, 

 December 31, 1914. 



seal and the fox herds, is largely commercial), 

 then the situation must be viewed from an entirely 

 different standpoint than hitherto; for the re- 

 turns the government is to receive from its invest- 

 ment warrant the expenditure of a sum of money 

 large enough to give the officials of the govern- 

 ment and the natives civilized surroundings, and 

 to provide adequate means and necessary facilities 

 to accomplish a proper administration of the af- 

 fairs of these islands. 



This summary follows the discussion of a 

 long series of topics such as immorality and 

 drunkenness among the natives; inadequate 

 and unsanitary housing facilities; unsatis- 

 factory schools; inadequate and ill-adjusted 

 wage schedules; insufficient occupation for the 

 natives ; need of additional government agents ; 

 better facilities for unloading vessels; stricter 

 landing regulations, etc., the conditions re- 

 specting these matters being found to be " de- 

 plorable." The keynote of the whole discus- 

 sion is that the government officials and natives 

 resident on the fur-seal islands are without 

 civilized surroundings and that it is the duty 

 of the government to relieve the situation. 



In a residence on these islands for purposes 

 of investigation of more than twelve months' 

 duration distributed over five seasons and a 

 period of seventeen years I failed to discover 

 this lack of civilized comforts noted by Mr. 

 Jones. On the contrary, I enjoyed such com- 

 forts to a marked degree, surpassing that which 

 I have found possible at times in home com- 

 munities of a much larger and more accessible 

 type. I have been quartered in all of the 

 government and company houses on each of the 

 two islands, and there never was a time when 

 I could not get a hot bath for the asking, and 

 on St. Paul Island is the only place where I 

 have ever experienced the delicate attention 

 of having an attendant light a fire in my room 

 before getting up in the morning. These 

 things are specifically mentioned because Mr. 

 Jones specifically notes the absence of bathing 

 facilities and of janitorial service as among 

 the deprivations to which the government 

 ofiicials are subjected. 



Speaking of more important matters — moral- 

 ity, temperance, sanitation and personal clean- 

 liness among the natives — if the summer of 



