FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF THE COMMANDER ISLANDS 
331 
When the writer left the Commander Islands on August 8, 1922, no seals had been 
killed officially, nor was there any evidence in the Bering Island salt house that 
an.;y slciiis had been salted, and the natives complained bitterly over the lack of 
frfesh meat. We were informed shortly afterwards that a killing of 500 seals on 
both islands for food would be permitted later. Tlie killing of over 2,700 seals is 
tiius accounted for. To this number about 1,000 probably should be added for 
Copper Island during 1918 and 1919. 
. ,Ji;..l- <r.;'"'--- 'r'i'i .CONCLUSIONS ; 
,.(:,,'■.',! l,)". 'i jM -i!) '".,■■'! ■ •>. ^ !,.<!•..•>•<• • •.>'■'..! > V 
Taking all the above facts into consideration, there should be no surprise over 
the fact that the Commander Islands seal herd has not recuperated as rapidly as has 
tlie Pribilof herd. The writer's dismay at the sight of North Rookery on Bering Island 
on July 28, 1922, was primarily due to the fact that it had not been seen since 1897 
and no information giving an adequate idea of the conditions as they existed in 191 1, 
the year of the seal treaty, had been received. It was, of course, known to me in a 
general way that the herd was then in a serious state, and even that females had been 
killed, but nothing had reached Washington to make one realize the full extent of 
the disaster. Furthermore, the complete story of the depredations that have 
taiien place since 1917, the number of seals killed on land and at sea during those 
years of lawlessness, and the lack of authoritative control on all sides probably 
never will be known; but allowing for all this, there seems to be a further circum- 
stance which may have had a baneful influence in retarding or even checking the 
rehabilitation of the Commander Islands rookeries. 
The northward movement of the two seal herds in the spring along the American 
and the Japanese coasts, respectively, is approximately alike on both sides. How- 
ever, as has been pointed out heretofore," the Commander Islands seals off the Japanese 
coast in the spring congregate in relatively greater masses and for a longer time in 
certain limited areas, a circumstance that makes them much more susceptible to 
close offshore attack. 
At the beginning of May the seals commence to crowd the Gulf of Mororan, 
between Hondo and Yezo, and for nearly three weeks they are assembled here, 
during which time the heaviest damage is done to the herd. Toward the end of 
May the seals move northeastward along the coast of Yezo, comparatively near 
land, making a last stand to the east of Iturup about the middle of June. 
The islands of Yezo and Iturup are the home of the Ainos, the aborigines of 
this region. Now, Article IV of the treaty of July 7, 1911, provides as follows: 
It is further agreed that the provisions of this Convention shall not apply to Indians, Ainos, 
Aleuts, or other aborigines dwelling on the coast of the waters mentioned in Article I, who carry 
on pelagic sealing in canoes not transported by or used in connection with other vessels, and 
propelled entirely by oars, paddles, or sails, and manned by not more than five persons each, in 
the way hitherto practiced and without the use of firearms; provided that such aborigines are 
not in the employment of other persons, or under contract to deliver the skins to any person. 
In practice this article is probably the easiest to evade in the whole treaty. 
It has been found so on the American side. Effective control is very difficult, and 
there is a strong suspicion that every provision of the article is being violated. 
« Asiatic Fur-Seal Islands, p. 263 and PI. 113. 
