160 THE ASIATIC FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 



With regard to the weight, it will be seen that the average in 1896 was a whole 

 pound lower than in 1895, in spite of the fact that skins up to 17 pounds were taken. 

 The lower average is due to a great falling off in the 10 to 13 pound skins and a 

 corresponding increase in those weighing 7 and 8 pounds. It will be noticed that this 

 increase in the smaller skins is particularly great after the 1st of August. This agrees 

 well with the known fact that the younger seals arrive on the rookeries later than the 

 older ones. 



The table of the details of the drives during 1896, showing the proportionate 

 number of sex and age of the seals driven, demonstrates that the driving of females 

 and young — in other words, the scraping of the rookery in search of killables — has 

 been going on in 1896 much as in the year previous. The percentage of females 

 appears to be somewhat smaller, due in a measure to the fact that the table for 1896 

 includes all the drives, even the earliest, when the proportion of females is less, but 

 that of the pups, on the other hand, is very much greater. 



Foreseeing that it might be impossible to make a landing at Mkolski the following 

 day, and that consecLuently, on account of the advanced season and the low state of 

 our coal supply, it might be necessary for us to proceed directly to Petropaulski, I 

 left with Selivanof a letter for Mr. G-rebnitski, regretting the fact that we might have 

 to forego the pleasure of bidding him personally farewell, and thanking him for our 

 reception and treatment while on the islands. 



Had time allowed, it had been my intention to visit the alleged fur-seal rookery 

 on the coast of Kamchatka, but for the reasons given above we had to go at once to 

 Petropaulski, Kamchatka, where the Albatross anchored on August 11. 



DE. D. S. JORDAN'S NOTES ON THE GLINKA ROOKERIES, COPPER ISLAND, 1896. 



Dr. Jordan, in charge of the fur-seal investigation, made a short visit to the 

 Glinka rookeries on August 25, 1896, during which he was enabled to make some 

 valuable observation on the starving pups. It will be observed that during my own 

 visit, shortly before, I was not in a position to continue my own observations of 1895 

 with regard to the mortality of the pups. In the special chapter relating to this 

 subject (p. 106) I have called attention to the fact that both the natives and the local 

 authorities evinced a strange inclination to treat this whole subject lightly, even to the 

 extent of trying to explain away ray observations in 1895 on Bering Island. Dr. 

 Jordan also experienced this same reluctance to admit that pups are starving on the 

 rookeries of the Commander Islands. His observations, doubly valuable because 

 they were made in company with the British commissioners, are herewith appended 

 as proof positive of the state of affairs which I pointed out last year. Of course, the 

 starvation of the pups does not assume the same startling obvious proportions as on 

 the Pribilof Islands. The pelagic sealing around the Commander Islands of late 

 years is decreasing, and I have elsewhere given the reasons for the fact that the 

 phenomenon is much more difBcult to observe on the Commander Islands. 



DR. JORDAN'S FIELD NOTES. 



Starved Pups. 



August 55.— Zapadni rookery, of Medni Island, is a stretch of coarse shingle and 

 rounded rocks on a sloping beach at the foot of very high cliffs. In the sea are large 



