ALASKA. Ill 



saved ; opposed to this, on the island of Saint George, from 

 8,500 spared seals in two years, less than 3,000 were taken, 

 hardly one-third. 



Why this irregularity ? Why should more young males be 

 born at one time, and at another less 1 Or why should there 

 be years in which m:iny cows do not bear young? 



According to the belief of the people here, I think that of the 

 number of seals born every year, half are males, and as many 

 females. 



To demonstrate the above-mentioned conditions of seal-life, 

 the table, No. 1, has been formed of the number of seals annu- 

 ally killed on the Prybilov Islands from 1817 to 1838, (when this 

 work was ended.) 



From this it will be seen that — 



1. No single successive year presents a good number of 

 seals killed as compared with the previous year ; the number is 

 always less. 



2. The annual number of seals killed was not in a constant 

 ratio. 



3. And, therefore, in the regular hunting-season there is less 

 need or occasion during the next fifteen years to demand the 

 whole seal kind. 



4. Fewer seals were killed in those years generally following 

 a previous year in whicli there were larger numbers of the 

 "hoUuschickie;" that is, when the young males were not com- 

 pletely destroyed, and more were killed when the number of 

 " holluschickie " was less. 



5. The number of "holluschickie" is a true register or show- 

 ing of the numbers of seals; i. e., if the "holluschickie" 

 increase and exist like the young females, and conversely. 



6. Holluschickie break from the (common) herd and gather 

 by themselves no earlier than the third year, as seen in the case 

 of the spared seals on the islands of Saint George and Saint 

 Paul, the latter from 1822-'24, 1835-'37, inclusive; the former 

 from 1826-'27. 



7. The number of seals killed on the island of Saint George 

 after two years ("zapooska") was resumed and gradually in- 

 creased to five times as many. 



8. In the fifth year from the first "zapooskie" (or saving) it 

 became possible to count or reckon on the number remaining, 

 and six-year-olds began to appear twelve times as numerous, 

 and seven-year-olds came in numbers sevenfold greater thau 



