886 
Special Papers by other Contributors. Part 
1 [-4]. Washington: Government Printing 
Office. 1898 [=1899]. 4 vols. 4to. Part 1, 
pp. 1-249, i.-vii., pll. ia.—ic., iia.—iic., iii.— 
ix., frontispiece, and 25 unnumbered plates. 
Part 2, pp. 251-606. Part3, pp. i.—xii., 1-629, 
pli. i.-xey., frontispiece, 6 maps, and a large 
number of text cuts. Part 4, pp. 1-384, pll. 
1-113 (pll. 87-113=maps and _ charts).= 
Treasury Department Document No. 2017. 
[Although dated ‘1898,’ parts 1, 2 and 4 
were issued in July, 1899, and Part 3, not till 
November, 1899. ] 
This apparently exhaustive report, consisting 
of 1637 pages, and 250 plates, charts and maps, 
is perhaps the most important contribution yet 
made to the voluminous literature of the vexed 
question of the Fur Seal industry of the North 
Pacific, contributed by officials of the United 
States. The occasion of the present inquiry is 
thus set forth: ‘‘The present inquiry into the 
condition and needs of the fur seal herds of the 
North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea is the out- 
growth of a belief on the part of the United 
States that the regulations formulated by the 
Paris Tribunal of Arbitration for ‘the protec- 
tion and preservation of the fur seal’ had failed 
to accomplish their avowed object. The in- 
adequacy of these regulations was apparent at 
the close of the first season of their operation, 
and each succeeding season has only rendered 
it more conspicuous. Failing to secure the co- 
operation of Great Britain in the immediate 
revision of the regulations, the United States, 
in the spring of 1896, accepted the proposal of 
Great Britain fora scientific investigation of the 
whole subject, to be made independently by 
each nation, the result of such investigation to 
form the basis of a reconsideration of the regu- 
lations at the end of the special trial period of 
five years.’’ 
Pursuant to an act of Congress, Dr. David 
Starr Jordan was appointed commissioner in 
charge of the investigation, with, as associates, 
Lieutenant-Commander Jefferson F. Moser, 
commanding the U.S. Fish Commission steamer 
Albatross; Dr. Leonard Stejneger, curator 
of reptiles, U. S. National Museum; Mr. 
Frederic A. Lucas, curator of comparative 
anatomy, U. S. National Museum, and Mr. 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. X. No. 259. 
Charles H. Townsend, naturalist of the Alba- 
tross. Great Britain appointed as her com- 
mission, Professor D’ Arcy Wentworth Thomp- 
son, of University College, Dundee, Scotland ; 
Mr. Gerald E. H. Barrett-Hamilton, of Dublin, 
Ireland, and Mr. James Melville Macoun, of 
the Geological Survey of Canada; while the 
Canadian government detailed Mr. Andrew 
Halkett to investigate the operations of the 
pelagic fleet. The Albatross, with the Amer- 
ican Commisson and Prof. Thompson and Mr. 
Macoun of the British Commission reached St. 
George Island, July 8, 1896, and the members 
of the two commissions conducted their investi- 
gations, usually in company, till late in October. 
The following year work was begun early in 
June, and continued till the end of the season, 
the two commissions working in company at 
the Pribilof Islands, while Dr. Stejneger made 
a very thorough survey of the Asiatic fur seal 
islands and fur seal industry. 
Part 1 contains the principal findings of the 
commission; part 2 consists of supplementary 
documents, giving in full the basis of these 
conclusions ; part 38 comprises some thirty sepa- 
rate papers by nearly as many different authors, 
chiefly on the natural history of the fur seal, 
and on the fauna and flora of the Pribilof 
Islands ; while part 4 is Dr. Stejneger’s re- 
port on the Russian fur seal islands. Part 1, 
after stating the occasion and scope of the in- 
quiry, gives a historical summary of the Amer- 
ican fur seal industry, followed by an account 
of the home of the Pribilof Island seal herd, 
including the geography, climatic conditions, 
the natural productions, etce., of the islands, 
and the number, location and character of the 
seal herds. Chapter IV. discusses the fur seal 
or sea bear in its zoological relationships, the 
eonclusion being reached that the three herds 
of northern fur seals—the Pribilof herd, the 
Komandorski herd, and the Robben Island herd 
—not only do not mingle, but constitute three 
distinct species, which are termed, respectively, 
Callorhinus alascanus, C. ursinus, and C. curilen- 
sis. The various categories of seals, as regards 
sex and age, their migrations and life habits 
are next detailed, followed by a history of the 
past and present conditions of the Pribilof herd. 
The decline in the herd is carefully traced and 
