66 investigation of the fur-seal industry of alaska. 



Part 2. 



[The census of the Alaskan seal herd on the Pribilof Islands as taken July 10-20 ; 1913, by United States 

 Special Agents Henry W. Elliott and A. F. Gallagher, under authority and by instruction of the House 

 Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce.] 



CENSUS OF KETAVIE AND LUKANNON ROOKERIES. 



Field notes to accompany chart and survey of condition of Ketavie and Lukannon rookeries, St. Paul 

 Island, Pribilof group, Friday, July 11, 1913, by Henry W. Elliott and A. F. Gallagher, special agents of 

 the House Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce.] 



(The condition of this rookery when comparison is made with that 

 of 1890 is founded upon the published official survey made by 

 Henry W. Elliott and Charles J. Goff, July 10, 1890, and duly pub- 

 lished as H. Doc. No. 175, 54th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 31, 32, 33.) 



We have taken up this morning, the survey of the Ketavie rook- 

 ery, beginning at station C of the 1890 survey. 



We find at station C and station B a complete elimination of every 

 seal reported thereon in 1890. The rookery ground then occupied 

 in 1890 as well as that of 1874 is now all overgrown with thick sod, 

 flowers, mosses, grasses, and lichens, which cover all the rocks— a 

 complete elimination of all of that 1890 fur seal life within limits of 

 stations A and B. Then, from stations B to C2 southeast, reaching 

 to the extreme point, we find nothing but one solitary 6-year-old bull 

 and a single cow, in a rocky pocket of the surf wash, together with one 

 cow swimming in the water nearby. 



As we proceed to station D of the survey of 1890 we find that the 

 entire sum of seal life in existence between is confined to a series of 

 pocket harems along the rookery margin just above the surf wash. 

 These harems aggregate 8 bulls and about 325 cows. 



At the extreme foot of station D, looking out to sea, on a surf- 

 washed shelf, we see the first "pod" of holluschickie on this rook- 

 ery — some 50 or 60 small male and yearling seals all told. 



From station D to station E, or the southern foot of the amphi- 

 theater of 1890, the seal life has been quite eliminated, and is con- 

 fined to a series of pocket harems, consisting of 20 bulls and about 

 700 cows. 1 



We now take up the amphitheater at the base of Lukannon Hill. 

 That small yet beautiful and impressive concentrated view of animal 

 life, which in 1874 invariably caused the most casual observer to 

 exclaim, "What a sight!" is totally deserted, with the exception of 

 three harems, with about 65 cows at the foot and right north of sta- 

 tion E ; a thick growth of grass and flowers is now on the ground 

 where nothing but seals once laid, and reaching right to the water's 

 edge. 



On the extreme northern surf-washed point of this amphitheater, 

 or station F of the 1890 survey, we observe a pod of about 50 hol- 

 luschickie, being the second batch which we have seen this morning. 

 From this point to station G of the 1890 survey, embracing the 

 entire sweep of the Lukannon rookery, we find the fife of 1890 con- 



i Touching this relation of the cows to the bulls in 1890, here, as contrasted with 1874, the following is 

 pertinent (p. 37, H. Doc. No. 175, 54th Cong., 1st sess.), to wit: "On Lukannon this last summer, while 

 there were two-fifths as many cows as in 1S72, yet the bulls did not average more than one-fifteenth of the 

 number they showed in 1872. On Keetand it was no better; il anything a shade worse, no young bulls 

 anywhere offering service or attempting to land. This undue proportion of the sexes, and the general 

 apathy of the breeding bulls, is characteristic of all these rookeries to-day. * * * in 1S72-1874 it was 

 just the opposite." 



