the breeding-ground areas upon charts" (Stanley-Brown 1896: 

 157). In his report for 1892 he wrote that "upon charts of a 

 scale of 264 feet to the inch [1 to 3,168] have been placed my 

 observations as to the areas occupied by the seals during the 

 past two seasons. These maps have been lithographed, and 

 upon them as a base has also been placed all information ob- 

 tainable from other sources concerning the oscillation of the 

 rookeries" (Stanley-Brown 1898:316). He stated that 11 "seal 

 rookery charts" (A-K) were filed in Washington in 1891. He 

 photographed the rookeries from "fixed stations indicated on 

 the charts." 



The Marine Mammal Biological Laboratory" recently ob- 

 tained a set of the charts "surveyed by Joseph Stanley-Brown, 

 1891." They show land contours; the sea is printed in light 

 green; symbols indicate the approximate rookery areas. The 

 charts show (with original spelling): Reef and Garbotch, 

 Northeast Point, Polavina, Tolstoi, Lagoon, L(illegible) 

 Zapadnie, (illegible) Zapadnie, Ketavie, Lukannon, Zapadnie 

 (St. George), Starry Arteel, North, East, and Little East. Hand 

 work was added to the printed charts by Stanley-Brown, C. H. 

 Townsend, and perhaps others. In black and red ink there 

 were indicated: 



1. Breeding grounds in 1892. 



2. Breeding grounds in 1896. 



3. Hauling grounds in 1896. 



4. Camera stations by number. The numbers were painted 

 on rocks the following year (1897) and have been renewed at 

 intervals down to the present. The camera stations of the 

 1890's were not, however, exactly those in use today. Thus 

 "Photo. Stat. 14" of the "Ketavie" chart is now simply a 

 number-painted rock southwest of Kitovi Amphitheater. 



5. Camera stations by letter. These evidently do not corre- 

 spond to the modern stations. Thus "Photo. Stat. G" of the 

 "Polavina" chart is no longer in use; the only stations on 

 Polavina are B, B,, and B : . 



The Marine Mammal Biological Laboratory charts are in 

 seven pieces; we are unable to reconstruct the original format. 



Stanley-Brown had permission to kill fur seals for research 

 purposes, for he shot "with a noiseless rifle" and later dis- 

 sected three female seals at Northeast Point. (Later, under 

 terms of the treaty of 1911, biologists on the Pribilofs were not 

 allowed to kill seals for other than commercial use.) He threw 

 eggshells filled with blue paint at females for the purpose of 

 marking them. 



Evidently believing that the Treasury Department should 

 not be burdened with biological matters, Stanley-Brown rec- 

 ommended in 1892 "that Congress be urged to require from 

 the Fish Commission an annual report of the condition of the 

 rookeries" (Stanley-Brown 1898:339). 



"Two 2-year-old fur seals were taken down to San Francisco 

 in 1891 to the Woodward Gardens. They refused to eat any- 

 thing, and escaped once by climbing a wire fence. They were 

 retaken, but died in about six months. They must, of course, 

 have eaten something to have lived so long" (Jordan et al. 

 1898:381). 



"Marine Mammal Biological Laboratory is presently National Marine Mam- 

 mal Laboratory, Northwest and Alaska Fisheries Center, National Marine Fish- 

 eries Service, NOAA, 7600 Sand Point Way NE., Seattle, WA 981 15. 



Murray was beginning to develop in 1891 a method, based 

 on the size of the average harem, of estimating the number of 

 rookery seals. He walked twice in July along all of the rook- 

 eries of St. Paul Island and concluded that there were 481,350 

 breeding females (Murray 1896:59). 



The joint report of the Bering Sea Commissioners was 

 signed 4 March 1892 (Behring Sea Commission 1893:11). It 

 was essentially an agreement to disagree. It was followed soon 

 by a report of the U.S. members, signed on 30 June 1892 

 (Mendenhall and Merriam 1895), and by a report of the British 

 members, signed on 13 August 1892 (Baden-Powell and Daw- 

 son 1893:13). 



Here was presented the first statement by naturalists that 

 "the fur-seals of the Pribilof Islands do not mix with those of 

 the Commander and Kurile Islands at any time of the 

 year. . . . The pelage of the Pribilof fur-seals differs so mark- 

 edly from that of the Commander Islands fur-seals that the 

 two are readily distinguished by experts" (Mendenhall and 

 Merriam 1895:323-324). Now we know that the seals inter- 

 mingle, and we believe that eastern and western stocks are ana- 

 tomically indistinguishable. 



Here, also were presented (Mendenhall and Merriam 1895, 

 opp. p. 352 and 354) the first life tables for male and female 

 fur seals. For each sex, a mortality of 50% during the first 

 year, and a maximum life span of 20 yr, were postulated. 

 These estimates are reasonably valid. 



The commissioners examined the stomachs of 118 seals 

 killed on the islands on 1 and 3 August 1891 and found them 

 nearly empty (Mendenhall and Merriam 1895:393). They re- 

 ported Townsend's analysis of stomachs of 104 seals killed off 

 southeastern Alaska, 22 April to 1 May 1892. The stomachs 

 contained squid; rockfish; walleye pollock, Theragra chalco- 

 gramma: lingcod; salmon; and stickleback (Gasterosteus sp.) 

 (Mendenhall and Merriam 1895:394). 



Merriam (1896) independently sent a circular letter on 2 

 April 1892 to 12 leading zoologists of the world. It outlined the 

 biology of the fur seal, described the history of the fur seal in- 

 dustry, and called for an end to pelagic sealing. The replies 

 were overwhelmingly in favor of his stand. 



The report of the "British Behring Sea Commissioners" was 

 finished on 13 August 1892 (Baden-Powell and Dawson 1893). 

 They showed a "track chart of routes followed" from 15 July 

 to 8 October 1891 (map no. 1 facing p. 150). They touched at 

 the Pribilof Islands three times, at the Commander Islands, 

 and at other points on the North American and Siberian 

 coasts. The report did not give important findings on land, for 

 the two men were on the Pribilofs for only 2 wk in August and 

 September. The report is, however, important in giving a thor- 

 ough historical summary of the "former, present, and pro- 

 spective condition of the fur-seal fishery in the North Pacific 

 Ocean" (Baden-Powell and Dawson 1893:3). 



They stated (Baden-Powell and Dawson 1893:19-22, 194, 

 diagram no. 5 facing p. 150) that the Pribilof kill for 81 yr 

 under Russian control, 1797 to 1866, averaged about 34,000/ 

 yr. From 1867 to 1869 it averaged over 130,000, and during the 

 first lease, from 1870 to 1889, it averaged 94,739, not counting 

 about 4,600 pups/yr. They pointed to statements of the Alaska 

 Commercial Company superintendent, H. H. Mclntyre, who 

 began to notice a decrease in average size of seals in the drives 

 as early as 1883 (Baden-Powell and Dawson 1893:27, 177). 

 They pointed to a gradual and deliberate lowering of the stan- 

 dard weight of skins (1893:178). They pointed out (1893:177) 



12 



