316 
BUT.T.F.TIN OF THE BUBJEAU OF FISHEBIES 
in order to understand fully the causes of the continued decadence of the Commander 
Islands rookeries, to go into the history of the 1911 raids in some detail- The 
following account is therefore based on the story told by Mr. Suvorof, who, as 
stated above, was present on the islands that year. 
Rookery raids in 1911. — From the table of the count on Copper Island (p. 315) 
it will be noted that no bulls or half bulls arrived in 1911 on Nerpitchi Kamen, 
the last remnant of the once big Karabelni rookeries. Immediately after the 
rookery guards had been withdrawn from this rookery in the fall of 1910 the seal 
pirates raided it, with the result that when Suvorof visited the place on July 20, 
1911, he found only about 20 cows and 15 black pups; "of bulls there was not one." 
Five days later he returned and found not a single seal — "there was not even a 
carcass of a newborn pup." The pirates had apparently been there in the interval 
and literally cleaned out the rookery. 
About the same time a raid on the Zapadni and Urili rookeries of the Glinka group 
was successfully carried out without attracting the attention of the rookery guards, 
for on July 21 they found there 80 cows killed and the carcasses of 121 black pups, 
and at Peresheyek the carcasses of 2 cows and 6 pups were picked up the next 
day. Here were also found, among other things, a Japanese oar, a double-barreled 
shotgun, a pair of binocles, a boat compass, skinning knives, cartridges, and ropes 
ready with slipknots for towing the seals killed. Evidently one of the pirate boats 
had been upset in the breakers. The raid must have taken place some time before, 
for the skins of some of the seals killed had already spoiled, and the birds had picked 
out the eyes of some. 
A much more serious affair took place on July 21. During the evening of that 
day the guards noticed some Japanese schooners signaling to each other with flags. 
A concerted raid was therefore anticipated and reinforced guards were placed at 
different points along the coast. About midnight about 25 boats landed near the 
waterfall at Sikatchinskaya. Alarmed by the large number of men disembarked, the 
rookery guards fired several shots. Some of the raiding party then attempted, 
aided by the darkness, to sneak along the beach and to land near Palata but were 
met here by the fire of another squad of the rookery guards, so that they hurriedly 
went off to sea. One empty boat, however, was afterwards taken by the Aleut 
guards near the same beach. In the meantime another party hastened in the 
opposite direction but soon disappeared in the fog. At daybreak, however, a boat 
belonging to this party, in which were the corpses of two Japanese, was found at 
Babinskaya. Kjiowing that in the raiders' whaleboats there usually are three or 
four men, a search was made along the coast for the missing ones, and soon a live 
Japanese was taken on the beach near the rookery. During the whole of the fol- 
lowing day a thick fog prevailed, out of which the firing of guns was heard, pre- 
sumably the schooner summoning its boats. The captive Japanese was afterwards 
taken to Vladivostok for trial in order that an example might be established which 
would put a stop to the ever-increasing boldness of the raiders. The Russians 
believed that at this raid they killed about 14 raiders in addition to capturing the 
two boats. 
Whether this repulse discouraged the pirates is not known, but the usual raids 
on the Bering rookery did not take place. However, the marauders for the first 
time landed on the southern shore of Bering Island. During the first half of July 
