THE KURIL FUE-SEAL ISLANDS. 237 



B -THE KURIL FUR-SEAL ISLANDS AND THE FUR-SEAL 



INDUSTRY OF JAPAN. 



I.-INTRO-DUCTION. 



With a view to setting at rest the many vagne rumors of large catches of fur seals 

 in the Kurils during recent years and the equally unfounded theories based thereon 

 of the formation of new rookeries, and, on the whole, in order to get at all the facts 

 connected with the fur-seal industry ia the l^Torth Pacific, the Fifty-third Congress 

 was asked to authorize an investigation of the Kuril Island fur-seal rookeries in 

 connection with the contemplated examination of the Pribilof and Commander Island 

 rookeries. The authority being granted on June 8, 1896, the present writer was 

 detailed on the following day by the President of the United States to undertake the 

 investigation, for which purpose he was later on attached to the new Bering Sea 

 Commission, of which Dr. David S. Jordan, president of the Leland Stanford Junior 

 University, in the meantime had been made president. 



ITINERARY. 



Leaving Washington, D. C, on June 18, 1 joined the United States Fish Commission 

 steamer Albatross, Capt. Jeff. F. Moser, which was placed at the disposition of Dr. 

 Jordan and bis assistants, at Seattle, on June 24. On July 8 we arrived at St. George 

 Island, Pribilof group, and with the rest of the commission, as well as the British and 

 Canadian commissioners, I examined the rookeries of the Pribilof Islands until July 

 19. Having by that time finished the necessary studies for a comparison between the 

 conditions of the fur-seal rookeries and the seal life on the Pribilof Islands with those 

 of the Commander Islands, I proceeded in the Albatross to the latter, under special 

 instructions from Dr. Jordan, dated St. George Island, July 11, 1896. These instructions 

 directed me to investigate the conditions on the Eussian islands as compared with 

 those of last year; to proceed thence to such of the Kuril Islands upon which seal 

 rookeries are reported to occur, and to Eobben Island in the Okhotsk Sea, with a view 

 to obtain as complete information concerning them as time and circumstances would 

 permit ; and finally, to gather in Japan from the authorities and other persons interested 

 such information as to the sealing industry of the Japanese islands and such statistics 

 concerning the pelagic sealing in Asiatic waters as might be practicable. 



Accordingly the Commander Islands were visited betwen July 30 and August 9. 

 The middle Kurils, upon which seal rookeries were credibly reported to occur between 

 August 22 and 25, and Eobben Island on August 29 and 31. Iturup, the largest island 

 of the Kurils was next visited, as it was supposed to be the headquarters of the sealing 

 interest of the Japanese Imperial Maritime Products Company, September 4 to 6. 

 Considerable information was collected in Hakodate, where the Albatross stayed from 

 September 10 to 19 and in Yokohama and Tokyo from September 22 to October 22, the 

 vessels having to go into dry dock at Tokoska, 



