110 



THE ASIATIC FUR-SKAL ISLANDS. 



materially, and the explanation, therefore, would not explain, even if the allegations 

 of the increasing lateness of the phenomena alluded to could be substantiated, and in 

 my opinion they can not. 



A glance at the table of seals killed on north rookery, Bering Island, during the 

 season of 1895 (p. 139) shows that nearly one-third of the total number of skins was 

 obtained between the 22d of August and the 13th of September (the skins being 

 shipped September 16); ia other words, during 1895 nearly one-third of the skins was 

 taken after the time when the skins were usually shipped. Thus, in 1894 the skins 

 were shipped August 27 ; in 1893, August 22; iii 1892, August 24. The earlier records 

 to which I have had access are rather incomplete, but from 1877 to 1882 the seal skins 

 were shipped from the north rookery, Bering Island, on the following dates: 



1877 Aug. 26 



1878 Aug. 16 



1879 Aug. 29 



1880. 

 1881. 

 1882. 



Aug. 20 

 Aug. 13 

 Aug. 16 



1880 Aug. 7 



1881 July 30 



1883 July 13 



It will be seen that even in the palmiest days of the rookeries, long before the 

 advent of the pelagic sealers, the shipping dates do not differ materially from those 

 of the years 1S9J to 1894. The lateness of the catch in 1895 is therefore abrupt and 

 exceptional. There is a great deal of difference in the dates upon which the hunting 

 ceases, even in former years. Thus, on Glinka, Copper Island, the catch was all in on 

 the following dates : 



1877 June 30 



1878 July 12 



1879 Aug. 1 



But the lateness of the Bering Island season of 1895 is not explainable in that 

 way either, for no amount of backwardness of the season would account for the catch 

 after the middle of August. The summer of 1895 was certainly a cold and late one, 

 and the snow was in places lying down to the water's edge the entire summer; but 

 the season of 1879 was also late, according to the records, and the "year remarkable 

 for much snow," yet the sealing season closed on both islands on August 2. There 

 must consequently be some other reason for the lateness in 1895. 



Here is where the plea comes in that the killable seals in 1895 arrived later on 

 the rookeries than in former years. In answer to this I would like to ask the question. 

 Is there anybody familiar with the north rookery, Bering Island, who would deny that 

 it would have been feasible in any previous year to have obtained there 2,670 skins 

 between August 13 and September 13, if an attempt had been made to "scrai^e and 

 rake" the rookery to the same extent as in 1895? However, the table of the seals 

 killed on that rookery in 1895 (p. 139) directly disproves the alleged late arrival of the 

 killables, for it will be seen that the proportion of the killables to the other classes 

 of seals driven was deci'easing toward the latter part of the season, instead of 

 increasing. Thus, before August 12 the average proportion of killed seals to those 

 escaping was as 1 to 2.2, while after that date it fell to 1 to 3.75. 



