THE EOBBEN ISLAND SEALS. 71 



Niebaum, that the Eobben Island seals can be distinguished by experts from those on 

 the Cominauder Islands, and that they do not mingle with them, being a separate and 

 distinct herd (Pur Seal Arb., iii, pp. 193, 204). While in Japan last autumn I learned 

 from Mr. B. J. King that the pelagic sealers distinguish the "inshore herd" of seals 

 by the whitish under fur, which is attributed to the Eobben Island and Kuril Islands 

 seals as distinguished from the Commander Islands seals, in which the fur is more 

 brownish. 



Very little is known about the movements of the Eobben Island seals, except that 

 they migrate southward. I am informed by Capt. D. Grcenberg, however, that sealers 

 who are said to have followed up the migrating herd assert that these seals pass through 

 La Perouse Strait. This information was corroborated by answers to the inquiries I 

 made in Hakodate. Mr. King told me that it is the opinion of the sealers that the 

 Eobben Island seals in fall travel down La Perouse Strait into the nortliern portion of the 

 Sea of Japan. About Christmas a large proportion pass out through Tsugaru Strait, 

 between Tezo and Hondo, the main island of Japan, into the Pacific, keeping inshore 

 10 to 15 miles along the east coast of northern Hondo. In spring the main body travel 

 northward along the Pacific side of Yezo, while a smaller portion^^chiefly younger 

 seals — return by way of Tsugaru and La Perouse straits. The Japanese skipper 

 of Unohi Maru, Mr. Matsuoko, and his purser, Mr. Nagai, expressed the same opinion 

 and added that in going north in spring the seals of the ''inshore herd" earlier in the 

 season pass into Okhotsk Sea between the islands of Kunashiri acd Iturup, but later 

 between Iturup and Urup. The feeding-grounds of the Eobben Island seals seem to 

 be unknown. 



The knowledge of the condition of the rookery is also highly fragmentary. 

 When the first sealers arrived there they found the whole beach surrounding the 

 island so occupied by seals that there was no place to effect a landing without driving 

 the seals off. At present the few remaining seals congregate on the very narrow beach 

 on the southeast side of the island^ (pis. 5 to 9). The bachelors are now hauling 

 up on both sides of the breeding females, and so close that many lemales are caught 

 in the drives. 



The various estimates of the number of seals on this island may be somewhat 

 more accurate than similar figures from the other sea islands, because of the small 

 extent of Eobben Eeef and the ease with which the rookery can be watched. Thus, 

 in 1871, when Hutchinson, Kohl, Philippeus & Co. took possession of the place, Mr. 

 Kluge found that "there were not over 2,000 seals to be found on the entire island." 

 Capt. G. Niebaum, who visited it at the same time as the representative of the firm, 

 states as follows: "The rookeries were also very small, and contained at that time, of 

 all classes, about 800 seals, as I ascertained by a careful count, and, in addition, a 

 small number in the waters adjacent."^ The rookery was therefore in 1871 in about 



I The breeding-ground, in 1892, according to Dr. Slunin (Promysl. Bog. Kam. Sakh. Komand., p. 12), 

 occupies about 4-5 sazhen by 70-100 sazhen (a sazben being equal to 6 feet). In 1896 it had shriveled 

 to about one half. 



v^ Dr. Slunin (Promysl. Bog. Kam. Sakh. Komand., p. 13) has been able to utilize certain reports 

 by some of the naval officers in charge, from which a few interesting facts are noted: "According to 

 the reports of LieutenantsRosset (1887) and Bramer (1892) the arrival of the first bulls depends upon 

 whether the ice has disappeared along southern Saghalin or not; but whether there is any ice present 

 in the Bay of Terpenia or at the mouth of the Taraika is apparently of no significance. Thus, in 1891, 



