FDTURE PROSPECTS. 231 



1893 and 1894. The melancholy decimation of the female seals on the Copper Island 

 rookeries, as witnessed by me in 1895, can be directly traced to this preying upon the 

 herd off Copper Island. The extension of the hunt to the Bering Island feeding grounds 

 in 1895 explains easily the presence in great numbers of pups starved to death on the 

 Bering Island rookery. The somewhat earlier falling off in killables is attributable 

 to the increase in the winter and spring catch off Japan. 



The simultaneous or sequential occunence of the above facts and phenomena is 

 evidently more than a mere coincidence. As cause and result, they fit like a hand in 

 a glove, and I have been unable to resist the force of the logic which places the blame for 

 the decrease of the Commander Islands seals upon pelagic sealing, and upon pelagic, 

 sealing alone. 



FUTURE PROSPECTS ON THE COMMANDER ISLANDS. 



The Commander Islands seal herd, originally and at its best less than half the 

 numerical strength of the Pribilof herd, is being killed off so rapidly that in a season 

 or two it must become utterly unprofitable to hunt them in the open sea. If the 

 destruction is allowed to go on much further it is feared that it will take a very long 

 time before the rookeries can be to any degree restored, even under the most effective 

 protection. 



If, on the other hand, really protective measures could at once be instituted, I am 

 of the opinion that it will be possible to repair the damage within a reasonable time. 

 It may not be possible to bring back the palmy days of 50,000 skins a year,^ but it 

 might yet be feasible to render the business profitable to the natives, the Government, 

 and the fur trade. 



This may to many appear as a rather optimistic view, but I base my opinion on 

 the well-established fact of the quick recovery and rapid replenishing of the rookeries 

 during the beginning of the lease of Hutchinson, Kohl, Philippeus & Co., as well as 

 upon the wonderfully recuperative powers of the herd as demonstrated in the history 

 of Eobben Island. A graphic demonstration of an estimated increase would bear out 

 this opinion, but as being chiefly speculatory, and therefore outside the limits which I 

 have endeavored to keep in this report, is here left out of consideration. 



' Unless pelagic sealing were to be absolutely and totally suppressed, in which case there is no 

 reason why the old prosperity should not return at a similai rate as during the years following 1871. 



