50 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



received he states that a half-breed hunter tokl him that he found in summer, " on Queen Cliarlotte's 

 Island, groups of these animals consisting of two or more beach-masters with a dozen or more 

 females and pups, but uo half -grown males." 



As is well known, the Pribylov or so-called " Fur Seal Islands," off the coast of Alaska, form 

 the grea,t breeding-ground of the Fur Seals, to which hundreds of thousands annually resort to 

 bring forth their young. The Pribylov Group consists of four small islands, known respectively 

 as Saint Paul's, Saint George's, Otter, and Walrus Islands. The two last named are of small size, 

 and are not used as breeding-grounds by the Seals, although Otter Island is visited by a large 

 number of "non-breeding Seals." Saint Paul's Island is the largest, containing an area of about 

 thirty-three square miles, and having a coast line of about forty-two miles, nearly one half of which 

 is sand beach. Of this, sixteen and a half miles, according to Mr. Elliott, are occupied in the 

 breeding season by the Pur Seals. Saint George's Island is somewhat smaller, with only twenty- 

 uiii • miles of shore line. It presents a bold coast, a grand wall^sf basalt extending continuously 

 for ten miles, with no passagewaj from the sea. , It has, in all, less than a mile of sand beach, and 

 only two and a quarter miles of eligible landing grounds for the Seals. 



A few old male Fur Seals are said to make their appearance at the rookeries on these islands 

 between the 1st and 15th of May, they acting, as it were, the part of pioneers, since their number is 

 not much increased before the first of June. At about this date, and with the setting in of the 

 humid, foggy weather of summer, the male Seals begin to land by " hundreds and thousands," to 

 await the arrival of the females, which do not appear before about July first. The young are born 

 soon after, and toward the last of this month the rookeries begin to lose their compactness and 

 definite boundaries, but they are not fully broken up till about the middle of September. The 

 Seals begin to leave the islands about the end of October, the greater proportion departing in 

 November, while some remain till the end of the following month, and even later. 



The number of Fur Seals present on Saint Paul's Island in July, 1872, was estimated by Mr. 

 Elliott to exceed three million, and on Saint George's Island in July, 1873, at about one hundred 

 and sixty-three thousand. Although these islands form bj"^ far their most ijopulous resorts, they 

 are said to occur in considerable numbers on some of the islands to the northward, but I am unable 

 to find deflu_ite statements as to their numbers or favorite stations. Mr. Elliott, after examining 

 Saint Matthew's and Saint Lawrence Islands, became convinced that they were not only not resorted 

 to as breeding stations by the Fur Seals, but that these islands, by their constitution and climatic 

 conditions, were unsuitable for this purpose, and adds, " it may be safely said that no land of ours 

 in the north is adapted to the wants of that animal, except that of Saint Paul and Saint George." 

 Mr. W. H. Dall states that "they have never been found in Bering Strait, or within three hundred 

 miles of it." In early times these animals are well known to have been abundant on Behring's and 

 Copper Islands. According to Krascheninikow, they were so numerous upon Behring's Island 

 about the middle of the last century as to cover the whole southern ^lore of the island. Their 

 range on the Asiatic coast is given by Steller and others as extending southward along the Kamt- 

 chatkan coast to the Kurile Islands. Krascheninikow states that they appeared there, however, 

 only in spring and in September, none being seen there from the beginning of June till the end of 

 August, at which time he says they return from the south with their young. Von Schrenck speaks 

 of their occurrence in the Ochotsk Sea and the Tartarian Gulf as far south as the forty-sixth degree 

 of latitude, or to the southern point of Saghalien Island. The natives reported to him the occurrence 

 of great numbers of the animals on the eastern coast of that island. Captain Scammon also refers 

 to their abundance twenty years since on the eastern side of Saghalien. 



Except during the season of reproduction, these animals appear to lead a wandering life, but 

 the extent and direction of their migrations are not yet well known. Steller spoke of their migra- 



