SOS 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[M-iY 7, 1891. 



to the net and consigned in companionship to the beauti- 

 ful two-pounder. He pulled the scales at a fraction below 

 three pounds. 



Ned being satisfied with his triumphs, handed his rod 

 to Joe, who in a short time caught two more. I had but 

 one rise more during this carnival of sport, and am sorry 

 to admit that the inquisitive troiit departed without a 

 scratch. I had evidently lost my lucky stone. It was 

 assuredly not my day, 



A glance above satisfied me that a return to camp had 

 better be made without further delay, as the wind was 

 freshening fast, the sombre clouds swelling their bulk as 

 they rolled, while the lake was running in ridges that 

 fell and rose against the boat with spiteful violence. We 

 "were about a mile from camp, and at once gave the word 

 to return, and ere we reached our quarters the sky had 

 become completely darkened, presaging rain at any 

 moment. The boys worked the ashen blades with will- 

 ing hands, and soon had us in camp and around a good 

 fire. 



My return had not been heralded with blare of trum- 

 pets, as my banners were trailing and my plumes soiled. 

 Not a fin had I to record for the evening's pastime, but I 

 swore by the great horn-spoon that ere another sun rose 

 and set there would be an orphanage among the tribe of 

 Salvelinus fontinalis that would cause loud lamentation 

 from one end to the other of their aqueous realm. 



We sat around the camp-fire for a while, listening to 

 the rumble of the far-away thunder as it came "wing'd 

 with red lightning and impetuous rage," and the constant 

 moan of the wild waves as they broke against the gran- 

 ite cliffs with clocklike regularity. Ned declared we 

 would have a wet night of it, and that its inaugui'al was 

 not far off, and, therefore, moved an adjournment to our 

 inviting beds amid the balsam. No dissenting voice 

 arising, we sought the tent, leaving the elements muster- 

 ing their troops for the grand battle, which bade fair to 

 be a tumultuous and tempestuous one, that would go rat- 

 tling along with deafening canonading and livid flames 

 from peak to peak and shore to shore. 



Soon the results of the elemental strife became mani- 

 fest, as a heavy downfall of rain began which lasted till 

 6 o'clock in the morning, with a promise of an almost 

 immediate renewal. The imagination might conjure the 

 fabled Jupiter with his powerful allies again letting loose 

 the rivers, that the earth might be completely deluged. 



Alex. Stabbcck. 



SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBYLOV ISLANDS. 



AN especial interest is added to our recent remarks on 

 the destruction of seal life by the appended memo- 

 randum just issued by Mr. Henry W. Elliott, of Wash- 

 ing, whose name is familiar to most of our readers. It is 

 to be remembered that Mr. Elliott spent the seasons of 

 1872-74 at the Pribylov Islands, and that he again visited 

 them in 1876. The results of his observations there are 

 embodied in his "Monograph of the Seal Islands of 

 Alaska," which was printed as a special Bulletin of the 

 U. S. Fish Commission. Last season Mr. Elliott was 

 chosen by the Government as the person above all others 

 fitted to visit the Seal Islands again and report on their 

 condition and the status of seal life there; for it had been 

 stated that the numbers of seals visiting the rookeries had 

 greatly diminished, and it was known that the pelagic 

 sealing which had been going on for some years had 

 seriously affected the inhabitants of the rookeries. It 

 was said also that the lessees of the islands had killed a 

 far greater number of seals than the terms of their lease 

 allowed, and had used no judgment in selecting the 

 animals to be slaughtered. 



Mr. Elliott made the required ini5pection, and in the 

 memorandum which follows he gives a clear statement 

 of the condition of things at the rookeries of St. Paul and 

 St. George, and shows that the seal fisheries there are at 

 the point of extinction, and that unless very radical steps 

 are taken to preserve them they will soon cease to exist. 



STATUS OF SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBYLOV ROOKERIES; THE 

 SEASON OF 1890 AS COKTRASTED WITH ITS CON- 

 DXTIOK THERE IN 1872-74. 



At the close of the breeding season of 1874, on the 

 Pribylov Islands, Lieut. Washburn Maynard and myself 

 found that there were on the breeding grounds about 

 85,600 able-bodied bulls, 1,600,000 females (nubiles, primi- 

 vares and nmUipares), and some 80,000 young males 

 between 5 and 6 years of age, Avhich were continually 

 striving to get upon the rookeries, but were, as a rule, 

 invariably whipped ofi: by the older bulls, giving rise in 

 this effort to the most animated fighting and extraordin- 

 ary noise throughout the whole period of the rutting 

 season. 



At the close of the breeding season of 1890, on the 

 Pribylov Islands, after the most careful and extended 

 search, surveying every superficial foot of each one of 

 the fifteen different rookeries with cross bearings from a 

 great number of measured base lines, and giving close 

 attention to the relative numbers of "bulls" and "cows," 

 I found on these breeding grounds only about 8,700 old 

 bulls, many of these aged, infirm and actually impotent; 

 640,000 females (nubiles, xyrimijiares, multipares and 

 barren), and no young bulls around or near the breeding 

 grounds. 



In short, since 1885, no young bull seal has been 

 allowed to live and grow after it reached the age of four 

 years, if it were possible to secure it; they have all been 

 regularly killed as they grew up, and their skins sent to 

 London. Therefore, these breeding rookeries during the 

 last six years have not been permitted to receive that 

 annual supply of fresh male life, which was then, as it is 

 now, absolutely necessary for their perpetuation and sup- 

 port in good form and number. 



In 1872-74 Lieut. Maynard and myself estimated the 

 number of non-breeding young male seals as they ap- 

 peared on the hauling grounds of the Pribylov Islands to 

 be at the lowest figure 1,100,000: of this grand total 

 250,000 were yearlings, 220,000 two year olds, 200,000 

 three year olds, 180,000 four year olds, 170,000 five year 

 olds, and 80,000 six year olds. In 1890,' at the height of 

 the sealing season, I made another very careful study as 

 to this number of young males, and my figures will not 

 warrant the statement of there being more than 60,000 

 young male seals left alive on the Islands at the end of 



the sealing season of 1890 (the pups new born on the 

 rookeries must not be considered, and are not, in this con- 

 nection). Of this 80,000, I calculated fully 70,000 to have 

 been yearlings, or the pups of '89, and thebalance, lO^OOO, 

 was made up almost exclusively of small two-year-olds, 

 not more than a thousand three-year-olds and a hundred 

 or two four-year-olds were left alive on either island at 

 the close of the killing season of 1890. 



What proportion of this 80,000 will re3.ppear on the 

 seal islands next summer is hard to say, for the reason 

 that these young seals will be exposed day and night from 

 the time that they left the islands last October and 

 November until they reappear next June and July to the 

 deadly attacks of voracious natural enemies such as killer 

 whales and sharks. These enemies are just as numerous 

 as they ever were, but the seals are far less so, and that 

 may cause, and indeed must cause a vastly greater death 

 rate in proportion to their number now than took place in 

 1874, when there were a great many more seals. Also a 

 certain percentage of this 80,000 will be destroyed along 

 the Northwest Coast this spring by the pelagic sealers; 

 but this number of "rising" two-year-olds is so smaU that 

 it is safe to say that these seals will be so widely scattered 

 when they return (and they are now at this writing on 

 their way up the coast off Vancouver and Queen Char- 

 lotte's Islands en route for Behring Sea) that I do not 

 believe that the open water hunters can get more than 10 

 per cent, of them, even if they do as well as that; but the 

 sharks and killer whales will do vastly greater execution. 



If, however, these young male seals that live to return 

 next summer are not driven — ars not disturbed by drivers 

 on the islands — in four year's' time from date quite a 

 large number of them will have matured so as to be able 

 to take up stations on the rookery grounds that are to- 

 day vacant, and in the charge of aged and impotent bulls, 

 which state of affairs, bad as it is, must get worse and 

 worse, until these young sires arrive on the field. 



Bad as the rookeries looked in 1890, they will look 

 worse in 1891, and worse again in 1892, and still worse in 

 1893; the first signs of improvement we cannot reasonably 

 expect before the seasons of 1895-96, and these rookeries 

 will not mend as soon as this, even if that remnant of 

 young male Hfe, as it shall reappear on the "hauling 

 grounds" next summer, is again driven. 



The normal ratio of males to females on the breeding 

 grounds of the Pribylov Islands in 1872-74 was an average 

 of one male to every fifteen or twenty females. 



In 1890 this ratio (despite the deadly work of the open 

 water sealers among the females) was an average of one 

 old male to every sixty or eighty females! (I saw many 

 single harems in which I counted over one hundred 

 cows). 



Therefore, it is a physical impossibility for these old 

 and enfeebled males now left upon the breeding grounds 

 to meet all the requirements of nature there; they did not 

 last summer; they will be weaker again in numbers and 

 in ijhysical power in 1892, still weaker in 1893, and again 

 weaker in 1894. In 1894 the first relief that can pcssibly 

 come to them, will come provided that handful of young 

 two year-old males left alive on the islands last summer 

 is undisturbed by man there next summer and thereafter, 

 and in 1895 the yearlings that were spared last summer, 

 such of them as shall return, will have then matured and 

 take their places on the breeding grounds. This infusion 

 of fresh blood will mark a turn of decided improvement 

 in 1896; so that in all probability by 1897 the killing of 

 seals for tax and shipment of skins may be resumed under 

 revised regulations. 



But, one very important fact should be kept in mind; 

 that fact is, that when killing up there is again resumed 

 for tax and shipment, no culling of thedi'iven herds must 

 be allowed; all the seals driven must be taken: for unless 

 this is done, then histoiy will repeat itself — every three 

 and four-year-old male will be killed as it grows up, and 

 the rookeries soon be again deprived of that regular sup- 

 ply of fresh male blood which is absolutely necessary for 

 their maintenance in their full form and number. 



Of course, it goes without argument that unless some 

 arrangement can be made whereby the wasteful and 

 wicked work of pelagic sealing can be stopped, it is useless 

 to try and save these interests by any regulation or atten- 

 tion on the islands. Henry W. Elliott. 



Smtthsonian Institution, Washington, D. C, April 28. 



Nehrling's "North American Birds."— We have re- 

 ceived four additional parts of Mr. Nehrling's "North 

 American Birds," the first part of which was noticed in 

 Forest and Stream in the Summer of 18«9. At that 

 time we had occasion to speak favorably of this work, 

 which it was hoped would by this time have been com- 

 pleted. Delays have interfered with this, and Parts II., 

 III., IV. and V. have only just reached us. These parts 

 contain biographies and plates of some of the thrushes, 

 titmice, wrens, wagtails and woodwarblers, and plfites of 

 many of the species described in the work. The accounts of 

 the different si^ecies are delightfully written, and the plates 

 as a rule are satisfactory, which is not surprising when 

 we remember that many of them are drawn by Mr. 

 Robert Ridgway, of the Smithsonian Institution, the others 

 being by Prof. A. Goering, of Munich, and G. Muetzel, of 

 Berlin. In speaking of the parts which have just come to 

 hand we have no reason to change the favorable opinion 

 which we pronounced on this work nearly two years ago. 

 If it is completed on the plan announced, Dr. Nehrling's 

 book will be a most useful one, and will do far more to 

 spread a knowledge of our birds among the people at 

 large than many a more pretentious volume has done. 



A Seventy- Five Dollar Grouse.— Auburn, Pa., April 

 29.— A friend writes me under date of April 19, from the 

 State Normal School at Mansfield, Tioga county, Pa, , of 

 a grouse that came like a rocket through the trees on the 

 campus and struck the plate glass window in the front of 

 the building, falling dead amid the fragments of glass 

 from the shattered pane. He states that Professor Thomas 

 had the bird for dinner, but thought it a rather expensive 

 repast, as it will cost $75 to replace the broken glass.— 

 Bon Ami. 



Wasps Eaten by Toads.— Toads have been observed 

 by some persons to feed willingly on bees and even wasps; 

 and M. Hiron-Royer, who has noticed the fact, says that 

 Hyla versicolor is positively frantic about wasps. He has 

 seen one prefer them to any other kind of food, and de- 

 vour them eagerly, although the sting does sometimes 

 briHg the creature to temporary grief ,—,yatMre. 



^^m^ §Hg md 



The full texts of the game laws of all the States, Terri- 

 tories and British Provinces are given in the BooTi ot the 

 Game Laws. 



TWO HOURS WITH THE BLUEBILLS. 



A SWIFT-SPEEDING afternoon train has born M. and 

 Jix. myself far from the confusion and whirl of the 

 great city. Jangling bells, shrieking whistles and jolting 

 vans all are left far behind, and as the April sun sinks 

 from sight behind a bank of golden-tinted clouds we are 

 discussing the merits of a hot supper at the old home- 

 stead and watching from the dining room windows the 

 ever varying shades of the w-estern horizon. 



Our time for reflection, however, is short, for there is 

 a sound of wheels outside, and the cheerful voice of E. 

 comes floating in to our ears. As we exchange greetings 

 with him, he queries, "Why not take a drive down to the 

 club house?" Nothing loath we consent, and making a 

 hasty exchange of clothing, our guns and shell boxes, 

 decoys and lunch baskets are loaded in the wagon; and 

 we are trotting merrily toward the winding and familiar 

 Bark, with its usually low and sloping mud banks now 

 submerged by the melted snows and spring rains. A 

 drive of an hour and we are nearing our destination. 

 The stars which thickly stud the heavens give us ample 

 light to travel the familiar route, The air is pure and 

 mild, and M. and I, after our long winter spent in town, 

 are drinking it in gratefully. Noisily we rumble across 

 a diminutive wooden bridge scarce forty feet in length, 

 and M. can hardly be made to believe that this spans the 

 same stream on which we are to hunt the wary wildfowl 

 on the morrow. Here the channel is narrow and the cur- 

 rent swift, cutting its way between hard and stony banks, 

 but after winding southward three or four miles further 

 broad marshes appear on either side and the stream widens 

 out, forming a body of water many rods in extent, and 

 presenting great attractions to the bluebills. Pausing at 

 a point a short distance from the bridge, we hear high 

 above us in the starry dome of heaven that wavering note 

 caused by the jacksnipe in his evening flight. Again and 

 again it reaches our ears as the bird soars aloft only to 

 swoop earthward on lightning wing a moment later. The 

 sound grows fainter and fainter still as we proceed on our 

 way, and at last we can hear it no longer. 



Presently we cross the Northwestern Railroad track, 

 half a mile west of the little town of D. Looking east- 

 ward along the shining rails one can see scattered here 

 and there the irregular and twinkling lights of the vil- 

 lage. Leaving this behind we journey onward, at last 

 turning in at the barnyard gate of the farm through 

 which we must drive to reach the shelter of the club 

 house. A brindled cur dog comes bounding out from a 

 dark doorway with an inhospitable growl, but the gates 

 are soon closed and with our lighted lantern upon the 

 dash we are trotting briskly down through the grove 

 lying between us and the shanty. Half an hour later we 

 are unloaded, our team is unharnessed and a good fire is 

 roaring in the stove. A pail of water is brought from the 

 spring and the coffee made ready for morning. Before 

 turning into our bunks for the night we step outside to 

 take a final look at our team, which we have stabled in 

 the boathouse adjoining. A beautiful sight is presented 

 to our eyes as we emerge from the heated interior of the 

 house to the pure outer air. The moon hitherto hidden 

 from view by the timber around us now greets the eye 

 as she majestically rises above the tops of the tall and 

 slender poplars to enhance the beauty of the scene. And 

 what a concert is also borne to our listening ears, for 

 from every side there is swelling a grand chorus from the 

 throats of ten thousand frogs. Not the gruff and un- 

 musical bullfrogs, but those tiny striped, sprightly little 

 fellows whose voices sound so pleasantly to the ear of the 

 lover of nature. A flock of geese are heard flying some- 

 where out over the river channel, presumably in search 

 of a roosting place for the night, for presently there 

 sounds a medley of honkings and a flapping of wings 

 followed by the sound of heavy bodies alighting. An 

 interval of silence follows, during which even the frogs 

 seem affected, but presently two or three, more hazardous 

 than the rest, pipe up shrilly once more as if challenging 

 competition, others join in and soon the old roar sounds 

 again louder than ever. At our feet gushes a large 

 spring, the outlet to which while it carries the surplus 

 water away also serves us in floating our boats to and 

 from the river some thirty or forty rods away. 



A jacksnipe which had been soaring aloft for some little 

 time now comes fluttering down and alights close by us 

 with a light sjyut and a gutteral aik. Vv'^ildfowl are heard 

 overhead on rapid wing, and altogether the evening's en- 

 tertainment is one long to be remembered. M. exclaims 

 enthusiastically as we turn to rejoin our companions in- 

 side, "Great Scott! I'd like to live here for a month." 



As we are to rise at an early hour in the morning the 

 bunks are overhauled and pul in order for the night, and 

 we turn in to fall at once into a deep and dreamless sleep 

 lasting until about four o'clock, when E.'s stentorian 

 tones announce that "It's four o'clock and time to get 

 up. " Three pairs of stockinged feet strike the cold floor in 

 rapid succession. E. , with his feet thrust into an old pair 

 of sandals, proceeds to start a fire, for we are all uncon- 

 sciously shivering. Our coffee pot is soon puffing out its 

 fragrance, and after frying a few fresh eggs we are all 

 ready for breakfast, and we can but wonder where we 

 have found these voracious appetites with which we are 

 provided. Long before we are through eating a glance 

 through our little east window reveals the fact that it 

 is high time we are on our way to the blinds. M. and I 

 are compelled to share one boat together, so the shell boxes 

 and guns are first stowed away with a dozen and a half 

 of canvas decoys, manufactured at Union City, Tenn., 

 and which, by the way, are a perfect marvel of conve- 

 nience of portability, to say nothing of their lifelike ap- 

 pearance upon the water. 



We push out into the center of the spring and pole 

 slowly through the water cress and enter the ditch lead- 

 ing to the river channel. A heavy fog rests low down 

 over the water and ere the river bank is reached and the 

 bow of our boat headed up stream the low musical 

 kherr, kherr, of the bluebill is heard on every side, 

 although until the fog lifts not a feather can be seen. 

 Gaining the center of the river we ascend cautiously bend 

 after bend. Now and then a flock rises close ahead and 

 disappears quickly in the gray mist which ©uvelopa 



