FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF THE COMMANDER ISLANDS, 
1897 TO 1922 
By LEONHARD STEJNEGER 
Head Curator of Biology, United States National Museum 
CONTENTS 
Page 
Introduction 289 
Investigation of the Commander Islands 
in 1922 292 
Itinerary 292 
The Russian fur-seal islands 293 
Condition of the Commander Islands 
in 1922 293 
Bering Island 293 
Reef, North Rookery, in 1922 293 
Kishotchnoye Rookery 296 
South Rookery or Poludionnoye 
Rookery 296 
Copper Island 296 
Glinka rookeries 296 
Karabelnoye rookeries 297 
New hauling grounds 297 
Summary of conditions in 1922 298 
Explanation of conditions 298 
History of the Commander Islands 
fur-seal rookeries and fur-seal in- 
dustry since 1897 299 
Page 
The Russian fur-seal islands — Continued. 
History of the Commander Islands, 
etc. — Continued. 
Conditions at the end of 4897 299 
Conditions after 1897 until the 
treaty of 1911 301 
Pelagic sealing 301 
Sealing industry on land 304 
Condition of the rookeries in 1910. 308 
The treaty of 1911 --- 312 
The Commander Islands rookeries 
in 1911 314 
Rookery raids in 1911 316 
Period from 1912 to 1917, the 5-year 
Zapuska 318 
KiUing resumed in 1917 322 
The Commander Islands after 1917 _ 327 
Number of seals killed on the Com- 
mander Islands between 1917 and 
1922 -- --. 330 
Conclusions 331 
INTRODUCTION 
In the spring of 1882 Prof. Spencer F. Baird, secretary of the Smithsonian 
Institution and United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, sent the writer 
to the Commander Islands, in the North Pacific Ocean off the coast of Kamchatka, 
for the purpose of collecting specimens for the United States National Museum 
and to investigate the natural history of the islands in general. Bering and Copper 
Islands were visited from May, 1882, to September, 1883, and it was thus possible, 
during two full seasons, to study the fur seals and the fur-seal industry of these 
islands and their distribution and to make maps and sketches of the seal rookeries. 
At that time pelagic sealing had not yet begun and the Commander Islands, which 
belong to Russia, were at the zenith of their productivity, the take of sealskins during 
289 
