112 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Tbe result was that the rookery was gradually increasing. Finally, in 1880, it 
was deemed sufficiently large to station a small force of men under Mr. Volokitin at tlie 
place, and in that year 787 skins were taken. It seems, however, that the capacity of 
the rookery was underestimated and not enougli salt was landed, so that no more could 
be taken care of. In 1881, iii spite of the complaint that although there are ‘^mauy 
sikatchi on both rookeries” there are “but few holustiaki, mostly in the water,” the 
South Rookery yielded l,15h skins. The following year (1882) the catch was 1,410. 
When I visited this rookery on August 31, 1883, I found the entire beach between 
the first and second cape west of the waterfall covered with seals, the breeding seals 
occupying the portion nearest to the water, the bachelors patches at both ends and in 
the rear up to the inner grass-covered belt. 
SOUTH ROOKERY, 1895. (Plate 10.) 
How different when I approached the same ground again August 17, 1895, thir- 
teen years later almost to the date! Only a handful of female seals were left at the 
extreme western end of the rookery. 
I am very fortunate in being able to present cojiies of two photographs taken 
by the late Colonel Voloshinof in 1885, Avhich, as they are taken from almost the 
same standpoint as one of my own (pi. 29), afford excellent comparison between 
the conditions of Poludiouiioye Rookery then and now. In the right-side half of 
his double picture (pi. 31u) a series of smaller rocks in the water extends from the 
beach to the outer end of the west reef. This series of rocks will be recognized 
toward the lower left-hand corner in my photograph (pi. 29), and will serve to orient 
the reader, ft will then be seen that the entire beach, which, in my picture of 1895 
is absolutely bare of seals, is covered with thousands in Yoloshinof’s picture of 1885, 
and that the compact body of seals then extended even a good distance beyond. To 
complete the comparison I add another i^hotograiih of mine (pi. 28) looking in the 
opposite direction (toward the waterfall), which shows the utter desolation of the entire 
beach beyond the little black iiatch. 
As for the proportions of the various classes of seals on this rookery I found the 
conditions to be similar to those on the North Rookery. It was reported in Nikolski 
thatthere had been only 1 bull on the rookery in 1895, but upon inquiry at the rookery 
I was informed by Nikanor Grigorief, the native in charge, that the actual number 
of sikatchi had been 5. This number may be considered exact, and the number of 
females to each bull was, therefore, iirobably nearly 100. There were i^lenty of pups 
when I visited the rookery, and no barrenness of the females was suggested. 
By dint of hard scraping no less than 504 skins were secured in 1895, 159 of 
them, however, between August 17 and September 9. 
COPPER ISLAND. 
KARABELNOYE ROOKERY, 1882-83. (Plate 11.) 
The distribution of seals on this rookery, as I found it during the week July 3-10, 
1883, is shown on the map (pi. 11). Every available space under the cliffs was occu- 
pied by breeding females. Even the ledges at the foot of them and the lower i)ortion 
of the steep ravines were full of them. The bachelors were obliged to be satisfied 
with the outlying reefs and rocks, with the beach on the east side of Karabelni Stolp, 
and the rocky beaches at Yodojiad and beyond. The rookery was in excellent coudi- 
