62 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
bulky literature wliicli spraug up as part of the “Fur Seal Arbitratiou” case, are too 
well known to need any further comment in this place. 
The natural history of the Commander Islands seal is essentially that of the 
I’ribylof Islands seal. Even their ndgrations, although along entirely different and 
distinct routes, show parallel phenomena. The route of the Commander Island herd, 
as we have seen, was known to Steller in a general way, but it is oidy recently, since 
the pelagic sealers are following the migrating herds, that the routes have become 
known in detail. Mr. C. II. Townsend, the naturalist of the United States Fish Com- 
mission steamer Albatross, has made a special study of this branch of the subject and 
has kindly furnished m^ with the following notes relating to the migrations of the 
Commander Islands herd as shown by the records of the pelagic sealers: 
I’elagio sealing off the coast of Japan usually coiuinences about the middle of March and lasts 
until the middle of June. The seal herd appears to be massed off’ the coast between the latitudes of 
Yokohama and Cape Noishap (the eastern point of Yezo Island) in March, Ai)ril, and May. In March 
sealing commences off Hondo Island (Npion) ; in latitude 36°, where seals are also of common ocmir- 
renoe in Aiiril, but they are then moving slowly northward. In May the best sealing is found south 
and east of Yezo Island, Cape Yerimo (the southeast point of Yezo) being a favorite sealing-ground. 
In .June they are usually a little farther north, being taken generally off the eastern coast of Yezo and 
the most southerly of the Kurils. They are also taken in June off the more northerly Kurils, but the 
herd is then farther off' shore and more scattered. 
In the Japan region proper, sealing is carried on from the coast out to a distance of about 300 
miles, while m February straggling seals have been taken as far south as the Bonin Islands. Seals 
occur in the Sea of Japan, catches having been made at several points there and in La Perouse Straits 
by the schooner Penelope, in a voyage around Yezo Island during the past season. 
Sealers crossing the Pacific in the latitude of Yezo Island jiick up seals at many points between 
Japan and the longitude of 180'^. In June and July scattered bands of seals, presumably of the 
Commander Islands herd, occur 500 or 600 miles south of the western Aleutian Islands. 
The charts accompanying my report on the fur-seal fishery for 1895 (Senate Document 137, part 
ii, Fifty-fourth Congress) show the positions where seals were taken by 20 vessels sealing- off the 
coasts of Japan and Russia during the past four years. 
LATITUDE IN THE PHENOMENA OF SEAL LIFE. 
It can be safely said that most of the points in tbe life-bistoiy of the fur-seal 
liave been cleared np, in so far as they can be cleared up by direct observation, but 
the recent activity for information in this matter resulted also in a vast accnnuilation 
of misinformation gathered by and from jiersons either untrained in scientific methods, 
inexjierienced in this particular subject, or prejudiced in favor of some pet theory, 
or biased by iiolitical considerations. This unnatural history of the fur-seal has caused 
doubts and confusion in the minds of those who have to trust to the literature for 
tlieir information as to the truth of even some of the most easily observed and most 
firmly established facts. Itenewed investigations have, therefore, become desirable. 
Aside from the mass of downright misinformation, a good deal of harm has been 
done by the often too swee])ing generalizations based upon a few isolated facts and 
caused by ignorance of the true relations of the latter as exceptions and not as rules. 
It must not for one moment be imagined that the lines are as tightly drawn in 
nature as in many books and reports. It will probably be possible to cite more or less 
isolated occurrences contrary to nearly every habit of the seals as generally outlined. 
These exceptions are not frequent enough nor imiiortaut enough to affect the general 
result, and it may l>e confidently asserted that the investiguitions which have of late 
been carried on by the American Bering Sea Commission and quite recently by the 
