
The published records of the fur seal industry up to 1910 are 
scattered and inaccurate. By act of 21 April 1910, the U. S. Commissioner 
of Fisheries was made directly and solely responsible for the management 
of the seal herd, and since then the statistics have steadily improved in 
quality. Main sources of confusion were (1) the count of seals killed 
compared with the count of skins shipped and skins received in London, 
(2) summer killings compared with fall food-killings, and (3) varying 
periods covered by the annual reports. Fairly good accounts of the seal 
harvest under Russian control (1786-1867) are given by Sims (1906); under 
lessees' control (1870-1910) by Fraser (1911); and under modern management 
(1911-50) by the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries and the Fish and Wildlife 
Service. Fraser gives consistent figures for a long period but does not 
give a breakdown of the take by islands. The source materials of table 16 
are as follows: 
The land take between 1786 and 1905 is from Sims (pp. 33-35), 
except that his figures for 1786-1820 have been redistributed by decades. 
The land take for 1906 and 1907 is from Lembkey (1908, pp. 36, 
63, 98, and 115). 
The land take between 1908 and 1947 is from published reports 
of the Alaska fur-seal industry (see U. S. Bureau of Fisheries). There 
seems to have been no published report for 1908, although the total take 
is given in the annual report for 1909 (p.44). We have prorated the 1908 
take to the two islands on the basis of a manuscript giving the summer 
killings only. 
The pelagic take between 1868 and 1905 is from Sims (p. 35); 
between 1906 and 1948, from annual reports of the fur-seal industry; 
for 1949 to 1950, estimated. 
Excluded from the table are the numbers of seals killed for 
museum purposes since 1940, in the aggregate less than 100. 
-4)8. 
