INVESTIGATION OP THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 91 



This rookery in 1890 suffered a loss of only about one-half from 

 the survey of 1874. The survey made to-day shows a loss of nearly 

 five-sixths of its breeding strength since 1874, and it has dwindled 

 to the following figures in totals for 1913, to-wit: 



To recaDitulate. — For the North Kookery, July 18, 1913, we find 

 110 bulls, ^6,695 cows, 6,200 pups; season o'f 1890, 485 bulls, 19,000 

 cows, 18,000 pups; season of 1874, 2,302 bulls, 38,500 cows, and 35,000 

 pups. 



CENSUS OF LITTLE AND GREAT EASTERN ROOKERY. 



[Field notes to accompany the charts and surveys of condition of Great Eastern Rookery and Little 

 Eastern Rookery, St. George Island, Pribilof Group, Friday, July- 18, 1913, by Henry W. Elliott and 

 A. F. Gallagher," special agents House Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce.] 



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

 of 1890 is founded upon the published official survey made by 

 Henry W. Elliott, July 10, 1890, and duly published, as House 

 Document Xo. 175, Fifty-fourth Congress, first session, pp. 51, 52, 

 and 56.) 



We begin this morning a survey of the rookeries of St. George 

 Island, at the extreme eastern end of the cliff belts of the Great 

 Eastern Rookery, starting at station E, from which we proceed west- 

 ward to station G, where we find. 1 1 bulls and about 200 cows, plus 

 11 bulls and about 200 cows, irregularly spread on the beach belt of 

 rocks under the cliffs. This is all the life that now survives there 

 from the 1890 survey. 



On the rookery ground from station G to station F we find 75 bulls. 

 These bulls lie under the base of the cliff, beginnmg at station G, two 

 harems deep, but they do not rise on the hill. They are dispersed 

 over the ground here, more evenly than on any rookery we have 

 looked upon thus far. It is safe to say the average harem will hold as 

 good as they did on St. Paul Island. Forty and fifty and sixty cows 

 to the bull is not an excessive estimate. We find here a total of 

 about 75 bulls and about 2,700 to 3,000 cows. They are lying just 

 above the surf wash on the cliff belts and do not rise on the hill at 

 station G. We see no "polsecatchie"; we see no "idle bulls." 



Between stations G and F, as in 1890, we observe about 25 sea lions, 

 included among them being four or five big bulls. As we go down, a 

 pod of holluschickie are alternately sleeping and playing between 

 the pool and the outer edge of the breeding seals that we have just 

 enumerated. We see here, between the holluschickie and the breed- 

 ing seals, two young 6-year-old bulls, being the only idle or separate 

 male breeders in sight at this rookery. Between the pool and the 

 foot of the breeding seals that we have just enumerated, we find this 

 pod of holluschickie numbering at least 2,500 to 3,000. It is com- 

 posed chiefly of yearlings; with about one-quarter 2-year-olds, and 



rookery are in the usual poor form and characteristic of those which I have described on St. Paul— the same 

 scanty supply of old bulls; no young bulls on the rookery or outside on the water's edge; large scattered 

 harems and every evidence of imperfect service. In all of these forms precisely as they are over on St. Paul. 

 "Yet this, the chief rookery of St. George, which held 76,250 breeding animals and their young in 1874, 

 has suffered a loss of only one-half of its cows and pups— but the bulls, fully five-sevenths of them are miss- 

 ing. This rookery was the largest on St. George in 1874. It has been so ever since and is to-day; but, large 

 as it was, there was only one on St. Paul smaller in 1874, the Lagoon Rookery (Nahspeel we can not count}. 

 However, to-day there is still another one smaller, and that is Keetavie, though it was twice as large as this 

 North Rookery in 1874. It is an admirable point of seal ground, well drained and free from muddy pools 

 during rain storms. It is in full sight of the village and only one short half mile's walk away." 



