106 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
But when I came back to the ISTorth Eookery and tried to apply my estimate, I 
was entirely at sea. I could not make up my mind whether the seals on the average 
were lying- as close as above, or closer. Of course, I could see places where they were 
thicker, and others where they were thinner, but 1 could not, to my own satisfaction, 
strike an average, if for no other reason, because there were great i)ortions of tlie 
rookery of which I could get no general view. Under those circumstances I Avould 
have regarded it as the merest humbug to iiresent any figures pretending that they 
meant anything. Consequently, I Avasted no further time upon getting at the probable 
number of seals on tlie Commander Islands rookeries. 
The only method AA^hich promises reliable results is the one adopted now on the 
Pribylof Islands by the experts of the United States Fish Commission, viz, to 
actually count the number of seals on several large tracts of rookery, each of the size 
of an acre or more. In this Avay an average per acre may be obtained, which, multi- 
plied by the conq)uted acreage of all the rookeries, Avill give an approximate number 
which may not be too far out of the way. But, unfortunately, this method is hardly 
applicable to the Commander Islands, for various reasons, chief of Avhich is the impos- 
sibility of making an actual count oA^er a sufdciently large area to insure a reliable 
average. The rookeries are so very different among themselves that it Avould be 
necessary to have a separate count of each of them. 
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE CONDITION OF THE ROOKERIES IN 1882-83 AND 1895. 
BERING ISLAND. 
NORTH ROOKEET, 1882-83. (Plate 7.) 
When I first visited the northern rookery, thirteen years ago, there Avere three 
distinct breeding areas. Adz, the Beef and Sivutchi Kamen, counted as one; a smaller 
liatch betAveen Babin and the creek, and Kishotchnaya. The bachelors hauled out 
on many of the outlying rocks surrounding the reef, and also in the rear of it on the 
smooth, wliite iiarade-ground. A large patch of them occupied the space back of the 
breeding-ground at Babin, large numbers extending a considerable distance back on 
the grassy area later in the season. Between the creek and Kishotchnaya there Avere 
three patches of bachelors. The Avhole distance from Sivutchi Kamen to Blizhni Mys, 
therefore, was practically one continuous seal-ground. The breeding-grounds at 
Kishotchnaya Avere surrounded by a heavy fringe of bachelors, Avho also sported in 
great numbers on the smooth, gravelly space in the rear of the rookery. South of 
Kishotchnaya, between the latter and Maroshnik, Avere again two separate patches 
of bachelors. In 1883 for the first time bachelors were known to haul out regularly 
throughout the season on the beach called Kisikof, beyond Maroshnik. They used 
to haul out there — and even as far south as Foutanka — late in the season, but their 
Xiermaneut settling on the beach in question Avas then regarded as an indisputable 
proof that the rookeries AAmre increasing. It was at this last-mentioned point that the 
Otome, an English schooner, AAuth a Jai)anese crew, made a raid during a dark night in 
August, 1883, and killed 300 to 400 seals. The mate was captured by the natives and 
the schooner the next morning by Mr. Grebnitski, on board the steaaner Alelisander II. 
The rookeries Avere in excellent condition, both as to quantity and quality. All 
classes of seals Avere Avell represented, and mdy skins of standard size AA^ere taken. 
This Avas iiarticularly the case in 1883, when the com^iany’s rexiresentatives had very 
