DATES OP FIRST ARRIVALS. 



Ill 



The following table shows how exceedingly variable the first arrival of killables 

 on the rookeries really is : 



First dtives on Bering Island, north rookery. 



The true and only explanation of the exceptional lateness of the season on Bering 

 Island lies in the fact that killable seals, especially the younger classes, had become 

 very scarce, and that, consequently, in order to get as many skins as possible — the 

 company and the natives being equally eager to make up the threatened deficiency — 

 seals were killed until the advanced staginess of the skins put a stop to it, as 

 proven by the fact that in the last drive, in which 194 seals were killed, 51 were more 

 or less stagy. 



This statement recalls the other change alleged to have taken place. It is 

 asserted that the skins become stagy later in the year now than formerly. 



In order to fully weigh this allegation it is well to call to mind the fact that there 

 are very few detailed and definite observations upon this point so far as the 

 Commander Islands are concerned. Nowhere do we find any series of observations 

 concerning this question continued through a number of years. It can not be too 

 often emphasized that there is a great latitude of date in the events of seal life,' and 

 assuredly the beginning of the stagy condition of the skin is no more bound to a 

 rigid observation of the calendar than the other phenomena. Moreover, we do not at 

 all know the causes which are responsible for these fluctuations; we do not know the 

 conditions which accelerate the advent of the stagy season or postpone it. Possibly 

 cold and damp weather may retard it. In that case we might expect the skins to 

 become stagy somewhat later in 1895. The only definite record, so far as the 

 Commander Islands are concerned, that I am aware of is the statement by the British 

 Bering Sea Commission (Eep. Bering Sea Comm., 1893, p. 50) that " in 1891 we found 

 the 'stagy' season was just beginning on the Commander Islands on the 1st of 

 September." In 1895 there were 14 stagy skins taken in the drive on September 10. 

 The " beginning " must, therefore, have been somewhat earlier — enough to show that 

 in this respect 1895 is not extravagantly late. 



The lack of reliable information concerning the beginning of the stagy season in 

 earlier years is easily explainable by the fact that the killing season was over long 

 before there was any suspicion of staginess. The question then was not at all 

 "When does the stagy season begin?" but, on the contrary, "When does it end?" 



' The first arrivals on Bering Island rookeries are shown in the following statement: 



