38 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA, 1909. 
seals more than others. Around these central points the animals 
gather instinctively, while those that can not obtain lodgment thereon 
spread to one side or the other. So, also, when the rookery space 
occupied retracts by depletion of the herd the spaces on either side 
of these focal points are first deserted and the herd converges upon 
the places which seem most desirable as breeding grounds. 
Owing to the decrease in the herd during the last few years, oppor- 
tunity has been offered to ascertain the points more desired by 
breeding seals. On these places the diminution has been less appar- 
ent than at others, or the diminution between particular years has 
amounted to nothing at all. We have seen that Ketovi rookery 
for several years has shown scarcely any loss, while portions of other 
rookeries have been virtually eliminated or reduced to skeletons of 
their former aspect. Lukanin rookery, for instance, immediately 
adjacent to Ketovi, has had four-fifths of its breeding area denuded, 
and such breeding seals as are left gather only on the hill at the 
southern extremity. Portions of Gorbatch rookery are deserted, 
leaving such seals as are there at the central portion, approximately, 
and the extreme west end. Polavina rookeries have retracted until 
practically all seals are at Polavina Point. Northeast Point rookery 
has retracted from the ends toward the center. Zapadni rookery 
has receded toward its central massed areas, leaving the bowlder 
beach line of Zapadni Reef almost bare of seal life. Ketovi rookery 
itself has abandoned that portion which abuts Black Bluffs, but after 
rounding Ketovi Point the breeding seals there seemed to have 
maintained their numbers with little or no decrease. 
Likewise, on St. George Island, North rookery seems to be a favored 
spot that attracts breeding seals to the exclusion of other rookeries. 
It has shown little decrease, or rather a more gradual decrease than 
East rookery and its outlying areas and Zapadni rookery, which 
seem to have suffered such loss in breeding seals as has occurred 
on St. George in recent years. 
It can be seen, then, that the loss among breeding seals is greater 
in some areas than others, and that the least decrease has occurred 
on Ketovi and North rookeries, the ones chosen as typical. Since 
this is the case it would seem proper that the loss in seal life should 
be sought where it really occurs and not upon those rookeries that 
are shown to have remained stable in numbers or on which the rate of 
decrease is slower than upon others. Consequently, judgment as to 
the condition of the rookeries in general should be based not upon 
conditions on one rookery alone and upon that rookery in particular 
which shows least change. The data upon which it is to be formed 
should be gathered from other localities as well upon which changes 
have occurred. Only in this way, in my belief, can a correct idea 
be formed as to changes in the number of seals present. It would, 
