58 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
with blit scant danger of being captured. In October, 1891, however. Captain Brandt, 
commanding the Aleut, upon returning to the island unex])ectedly, captured two 
schooners, the Arctic and the Mystery, both fitted out in Yokohama but flying the 
British flag and having 1,500 seal skins on board (Brit. Behring Sea Comm. Eep., p. 89). 
The latest raid on Eobben Island was undertaken last autumn. On October 29, 
1895, the British schooner Saipan, sailing from Yokohama early in October, ostensibly 
on a shark-fishing expedition, landed 17 of her crew on Eobben Island. She sailed 
away, promising to return in eiglit days. In tlie meantime the Eussian transport 
Yakut, which did patrol duty around the Commander Islands during the summer, 
arrived and found the 17 men with a great number of slaughtered seals. They were 
arrested and brought to Vladivostok, where she arrived about November (5. The 
schooner returned to the island too late, and thus escaped capture. 
In addition, there is no doubt that the Eobben Island herd must have suffered 
somewhat from i^elagic sealing proper, though the extent can not be known. 
Capt. D. Greenberg, of the Bobrik, in 1895 reported that females were ijresent in 
fair numbers, and that the proportion of bulls to females was about 1 in 40. The 
weight of the skins taken was good, and yearlings were quite scarce. He also men- 
tioned having observed an unusual number of dead pups. 
Nu7tiher of skins taken Jnj the lessees of Itobben Island from 1871 to 1895. 
Te.ar. 
Seals. 
Year. 
Seals. 
1871 
n 
0 
2, 094 
2, 414 
3, 127 
1,528 
2,949 
3, 140 
4,002 
3, 330 
4, 207 
4, 106 
2. 049 
3, 819 
1885 
1,838 
0 
0 
0 
0 
1,456 
450 
0 
1,500 
1, 000 
1,300 
1872 
1886 
187B 
1887 
1874 
1888 
1875 
1889 
187C 
1890 
1877 
1891 
1878 
1892 
1879 
1893 
1880 
1894.. .. 
1881 
1895 
1882 
Total 
44, 909 
1883 
1881.. 
3-OTHER ISLANDS. 
Omitting all references to breeding rookeries on the mainland of Kamchatka as 
based upon hearsay, and in all i)robability resting on misidentifieation of young sea- 
lions, it may be well in the present work to mention those localities in the Okhotsk 
Sea, besides Eobben Island, where seals are said to haul out to breed. 
ST. IONA ISLAND. 
This is a small island, about 2 miles in circumference, situated in 56° 25' north 
latitude and 143° IG' east longitude, 120 miles north of the northern extremity of 
Sakhalin Island and a little more than 150 miles east of Port Ayan. It is said to be 
about 12 feet high and to liave a crowd of detached rocks lying off its west side.' 
1 “ 8t. Iona Island, in lat. 56° 22.p N., long. 143° 15|' E., is merely a hare rock, about 2 miles in 
circumference and 1,200 feet high, surrounded on all sides, except the we.st, hy detached rocks, against 
which the waves heat with great violence, and which probably extend a considerable distance under 
water. With the island bearing north, distant 12 miles, Krusenstern had 15 fathoms water, but when 
it bore west, about 10 miles, no bottom could be obtained with 120 fathoms ” (China Sea Directory, iv, 
1884, p. 178). 
