172 



THE ASIATIC FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 



KAEABELNI. 



No. of 

 drive. 



Date 

 (new 

 style). 



1897. 

 July 4 

 July 6 

 July 13 

 July 20 

 July 26 

 Aug. 2 

 Aug. 4 

 Aug. 6 

 Aug. 10 

 Aug. 23 



Locality. 



Stolp 



."'.Aoy.^wiiv.'.w. 



do 



do 



do 



do 



Bolahaya Bnlihta . 



Vodopad 



Stolp 



Total. 



Under 7 

 pounds. 



weight 

 skina. 



260 

 122 

 285 

 112 

 58 

 73 

 73 

 79 

 187 

 19 



Total. 



284 

 127 

 299 

 113 



58 



74 

 a 76 



79 

 199 



20 



1,329 



a Including 1 cow. 



StTMMAET OF COMMANDER ISLANDS AND EOBBEN ISLAND CATCH, SUMMER 1897. 



Bering Island ; 



North Rookery 4,873 



South Rookery 153 



Total 5,026 



Copper Island : 



Glinka rookeries 4, 976 



Karabelni 1, 329 



Caught m sea-otter nets 4 



Total 6,309 



Commander Islands, total H 335 



Rohben Island '214 



Grand total U 549 



As might have been expected, the catch was considerably smaller than that of the 

 corresponding season of 1896, the Bering Island rookeries and Karabelui showing a 

 great falling off. The slight increase of the Glinka catch is caused by an unusual 

 activity on the part of the Government agents in killing seals by means of boats at 

 places on the shore where no killing was formerly thought possible. It is quite 

 characteristic that not a single seal was obtained at the old hauling grounds at 

 Petshani, which formerly yielded the large majority of the skins. So desperate has 

 the raking of these rookeries become that during the present summer the bachelors 

 were culled from among the breeding cows in some places, as on Bering Island. 

 Conditions seem to Lave been similar at Karabelni, as the chief hauling ground 

 Vodopad, yielded only 199 skins. 



It will be noted that if the killing had been stopped on August 1 the total for the 

 Commander Islands would only have been 6,033 skins. Nothing could better illustrate 

 the straits to which these rookeries have come. 



REMARKS UPON MR. 6. E. H. BARRETT-HAMILTON'S "REPORT ON THE RUSSIAN SEAL 

 ISLANDS IN THE NORTH PACIFIC, 1896, DATED MARCH 4, 1897." 



Mr. G. E. H. Barrett- Hamilton's "Eeport on the Russian Seal Islands in the 

 North Pacific, 1896, dated March 4, 1897," is to a large extent a criticism of certain 

 portions of my " Russian Fur-Seal Islands," as I wrote it in 1895. It is therefore but 

 natural that I should devote some space to a reply. A running comment and refuta- 

 tion of certain statements and arguments is impracticable on account of the way in 

 which his criticisms are woven into the narrative of his own experience. 1 have 



