REPORT
BY
PROFESSOR D'AROY THOMPSON
ON HIS
MISSION TO THE BEHRING SEA IN 1896,
DATED MARCH 4, 1897.
REPORT
n
PROFESSOR D'AROY THOMPSON
ON HIS
MISSION TO THE SEEKING SEA. IN 1896,
DATED MARCH 4, 1897.
: • •
Report l>y Professor D'Arcy Thompson on his Mission to the
Sea in 1*9(5, dated March 4, 1897.
MvLord. MarcA4, 1897.
. \FTKR visiting. according to your Lordship's instructions, (he Pribyloff and Com-
mander Island- tin- tin- purpose of investigating tin- condition of the seal rookeries thereon,
I have tin- honour to submit the following Report: —
'2. The main object of my mis-ion was tin- collection of information and statistics
with regard to the working and effectiveness of the Peculations for the fur-seal fishery
prcM-ihed hy the Award of the Puri- Arhitration Tribunal.
3. It was particularly enjoined on me to inve<iiuate the breeding rookeries with a
view to asei-rtaiuin» the extent anti can-e- of the alleged mortality of unweaned pups.
. -\. I was further instructed to inspect and estimate the number of seals resorting to
the islands, and in particular to the Pribyloff Islands, and to compare the phenomena that
I witnrv-ed with the information and statistics supplied for the season of 1895 by the
American Agents. (.V4th Cou-n M, 1st Session. Sen. Doc. 137, Part I, pp. 372, 373.)
5. I a-tl\. I was din (ted to call upon the authorities in Washington and Ottawa, and
to obtain there, and collect also from per>ons connected with the sealing industry in
Victoria, information bearing on the business of my mission.
6. .Mr. (;. i'. II. iiarrett-Mamilton u eiated with me and placed under ray
orders, with instructions to proceed, in the first instance, to Robben Island and the Com-
mander Islands, and to involute those localities in particular. Mr. James Maeoun w.i-
ii with me as an Agent of the Dominion (-Jovcnimenf, and .Mr. A. Halkctt was
directed at the same lime by the same (Government to proceed to Behring Sea on hoard a
in-i-scl.ooner, and to watch during the summer the methods and results of the pelagic
industry.
7. I left KiiL'laru on the 2-3rd May. and arrived in Washington on the morning of the
3(ltl; May. Hi- Kxcellcncy Sir .Julian Pauncefoie presented me to Mr. Olney and to
Mr. (_'. S. llamlin. A.->:>ta:;t Secretary to the United States' Treasury. With the latter
gentle-Mian, who had himself visited the seal islands in the summer of 185)4, I had the
benefit of much conversation, tcgether with the advantage of introductions to the whole
body of naturalists resident in Washington who had uiven thought to the matter, or
partici| ih ; in the research. Amotu: those who did mo>' to entertain and enlighten me
.Mr. .). I5rowne Goode, of the Smithsonian Institute, the ntws of whose untimely and
lamentable decease was to reach me ere my return ; Commander .1. .1. Hrice, of the
I eries Department; Mr. Ridgwajr, Asmtanl in the Mine Department ; Dr. L. Stejue-c!-.
Mr. K. True, and Mr. K. A. Luca-.'ot' the National Museum, who had all been, or were
about to be, employed in this particular inquiry.
8. On the liight of the :'.rd June, 1 "left Wa>hington for Ottawa, in company
with Mr. .1. Maconn, who had met n.e in New York. From Ottawa I journeyed to Quebec,
at the lecpiest ot \i\< Kxcellency the (io\ ei in r-< ieneral, in order to confer with bis Kxcel-
leney regarding the object of my mis-ion. Keturninu to Ottawa on the 9th June, I
discussed the whole cpiestion at len-th with Dr. (>. M. i):i'\>oii. who was kind enough to
draw up a collection ol notes am. r my iulo: matiou and guidance. In
company with Mcssr.-. Macoun and ilalkett, 1 left Ottawa on the !0lh June, ami arrived
in Victoria, liiitish Columbia, on the loth June.
[313]
ivJ555
2
9. In Victoria I associated and conversed with a number of the captains of sealing-
schooners, who were then engaged in fitting out their vessels for the summer's cruise, and
especially with Captain Sievvard, of the " Dora Steward," who had offered the hospitality
of his ship to Mr. A. Halkett for the summer. I became acquainted also with several gentle-
men connected with the industry, and particularly with Mr. Joseph Boscowitz, a leading
trader, with large interests in the sealing business.
Admiral Stephenson, who was at that time leaving the station, and Admiral
H. St. John Palliser, who was then assuming the command, received me with much
kindness, and undertook to meet my requirements for conveyance in or from Behring Sea
on board Her Majesty's ships.
I had previously received information that the United States' Government had
extended to me an invitation to proceed to Behring Sea on board the United States' ship
"Albatross," and I now learned that an American Commission had been appointed on the
ISth June (since my departure from Washington) for an identical investigation. This
Commission was headed by Dr. David Starr Jordan, President of the Leland Stanford
University. Mr. Joseph Murray, of Fort Collins, Colorada, formerly United States'
Treasury Agent at St. Paul Island, was selected as Assistant Commissioner, and the
following gentlemen from the United States' National Museum and the United States'
Fish Commission were detailed as associates : Lieutenant Commander Jefferson F. Moser,
commanding the United States' Fish Commission steamer "Albatross;" Dr. Leonard
Stejneger. Curator of Reptiles, United States' National Museum; Mr. Frederic A. Lucas,
Curator of Comparative Anatomy, United States' National Museum ; and Mr. Charles H.
Townsend, Naturalist of the "Albatross."
Mr. G. A. Clark acted as Secretary to the Commission, and took a very important
part in its subsequent investigations,
10. On the 19th June I departed from Victoria for Seattle, in the State of Washing-
ton, to join the "Albatross." On the 24th June I set sail from Seattle for Unalaska on
board that vessel, in company with the American Commissioners and Mr. Macoun,
Mr. Barrett-Hanviton being then on his way from San Francisco to Japan, en route for the
Kurile Islands and the Sea of Ochotsk.
11. On the 3rd July we reached Unalaska, and disembarked on the 8th July on the
Island of St. George. We were here received with great kindness by Mr. James Judge,
Resident Agent of the United States' Treasury, and by Dr. L. A. Noy.es and Captain
Daniel Webster, of the North American Commercial Company.
12. On the 12th July we left the island of St. George, and arrived on the same day
at that of St. Paul, where we were received by Mr. J. B. Crpwley, Resident Agent of the
United States' Treasury, by Mr. J. B. Stanley Brown, Agent of the North American
Commercial Company, and by Dr. O. H. Voss and Mr. J. C. Redpath, officials of the
Company. Quarters were provided for us in the Company's house, a small laboratory
and a photographic room were presently fitted up for our use in an empty hut, and then
and thereafter, during the whole of our stay, we experienced the greatest kindness and
attention from the above-named gentlemen and from the people of the island.
13. On the 15th August Her Majesty's ships "Satellite" and "Icarus" arrived off
the island. On the following morning I embarked for the Commander Islands on board
the " Satellite," accompanied by Dr. Jordan, to whom Commander Allen had offered the
hospitality of the ship.
14. On the 22nd July we arrived at Behring Island, where we were received by
Mr. Emil Kluge, agent for the Russian Fur Company.
We learned that the Governor of the islands, Colonel Grebnitzki and Mr. Barrett-
Hamilton were both on Copper Island, and we accordingly set sail thither on the 24th
July. On the intervening day it was impracticable to visit the rookeries, 1'2 miles
distant irom our anchorage at Nikolski, and our intention to return thither had to be after-
wards abandoned.
15. On the 25th July, in the early morning, we anchored off the village of Preobrajenski,
in Copper Island, where I immediately landed and paid my respects to the Governor. We
then, accompanied by Mr. Barrett-Hamilton, sailed to the neighbouring village of Glinka,
from which place we crossed the island, and, under the guidance of Major Waxmuth,
Governor of Copper Island, spent a day in surveying seven out of the twelve portions that
constitute the great rookery which takes its name from the village. Our journey going
and coming followed two of the three chief drive-routes of the seals.
16. The conditions of weather and the difficulties of anchorage and of landing
rendering it inadvisable to delay, and the other Commander Island rookeries having been
sum'ciently surveyed by Mr. Barrett- Hamilton, we departed the same night on our return
voyage to the Piil>\ lulls !>y uav of Unalaska, from which place ll<i M:ije-ty's ship
"Pheasant," Commander K. A. (larforth, conveyed us to tin- NamU.
17. We regained the Isl..iid of St. Paul on the 1st September. On the sth September.
ill compam \vitli l>r. .Ionian and Mr. Lucas, of tin- American Commission. I left St. Paul
onboard the United State-' n\ , •nue-euiter " Hush,1' Captain \\ . ||. Robert-, reached
Sitka on the li'Jiul September, and arrived in Victt-i'ia on the .'U)th September. \l
et; -Hamilton and Maeonn and Mr. Clark and Colonel Murrav. of the American
Commission, remained hehincl upon the islands, in order to re-iimc and repeat during the
first da\- ni October the investigation and count of the dead pups.
is. I spent M>mc days in Victoria, durinir which time Mr. A. IJ. Milne. C.M.G.,
Collector of Customs, furnished me with much information, and made me acquainted with
several gentlemen vu-scd or interested in the -.al question, besides those whom I had met
formerly.
]!». Leaving Victoria on the 10th October, I travelled, in accordance with my
in-M lie-turns, to Ottawa, for the purpose of conferring will Dr. G. M. Dawson, and also, in
the alisenee of the Minister o' Marine and Fisheries, with Mr. Gourdeau, the Deputy
Minister, and with Professor Prince, Commissioner of Fisheries. I had also here an
opportunity of discussing the circumstances of the case with SirC. Hibhert Tupper, who
aliout to proceed to Victoria as counsel for the Canadian sealers in the cases awaiting
arbitration.
20. On the '2()th October I left Ottawa, and arrived in London on the 31st October.
•Jl. It is my duty to inform your Lordship that I and my colleagues received at eveiy
<• of our journey and in every portion of our work such kindness and hospitality as
call lor the warmest expression of our thanks. In our association with the officials of the
United States' Government, \\ith the captains and officers of the United States' ship
!batm-s," with the captains and ollicers of the United States' revenue-miters cruising
in Hehrinir Sea, in the conduct of the Company's otiicials resident on the islands, and in
a very hii:h degree in the attitude of the American ( 'ommi-sion, \\e recognised continual
an.xiety for our comfort, and thoughtful provision for the accomplishment of our business.
It oe-erus to be particularly recorded that on the islands we enjoyed, together
with the American Commissioners, opportunities and privileges that had never before been
accorded to any investigators, whether American or British; that the utmost liberty
of action within the hounds of reason uas permitted us; that, in short, we were left free
to see all that was to he seen, and to do whatsoever commended itself to our inclinations
or judgment.
'2*2. Lastly, it behoves me to acknowledge that in the investigations presently to be
described my own part was that of one among many, and that the chief burden lay with
Dr. Jordan and his Commission. On those great and scattered rookeries a man working
v can do little, where a company working in collusion can do much. Accordingly it
wa> my business to co-operate continually with the Americans, to see whnt they saw, and
to [articipate in what they did; and, as an eye-witness of all that they witnessed,
I desire to place my testimony on record that the general success of our expedition, the
new knowledge as to matters of fact that we obtained, and in particular the censuses that
\u tor the first time attempted and achieved, were one and all the direct result of
Dr. Jordan's counsel and leadership.
It is my purpose to deal in this Report with the general case under the following sub-
divisions :—
1. The present condition of the seal rookeries on the Pribyloff Islands.
'1. The extent and causes of the mortality of pups.
3. The driving and killing of seals on the islands and other matters of local manage-
ment.
4. Statistics of the industry.
To the Marquess of Salisbury.
&c. &c. &0,
[3131
B
ST. GEORGE ISLAND.
The Aspect and Condition of the Rookeries.
North Rookery,
This rookery occupies a stretch of rough shore, strewn with great blocks of basalt,
for the space of about 1,000-1,100 yards west of the village, on the north shore of the
island.
Behind the more or less narrow beach rise low cliffs, broken here and there by gullies
giving easy access to the gently sloping plateau above, the main resort of the young seals
and bachelors. Such a configuration of low beach and higher background conveniently
approached is characteristic of the majority of the rookeries on both islands. In this case a
deep gully at the east (cf. photograph No. 95) and another about 300 yards beyond the
west end of the breeding rookery form the main ascents to the hauling-grounds. The
westernmost gully of the actual rookery (photograph No. 94) was, we were told, an
important ascent to the hauling-grounds ten or fifteen years ago.
The harems occupy the beach in a line at first sight continuous, but interrupted by
five short breaks amounting in the aggregate to a space of about 150 yards. In the two
westernmost patches of the rookery the harems run back from the beach up two
convenient gullies to a distance in the westernmost case of about 50 yards from the
shore in the early part of the season.
On our first visit (the 8th July) we attempted to compare the aspect of the rookery
with the outlines marked by Mr. Townsend, on the 18th July, 1895, upon Mr. Stanley
Brown's map of the rookery (cf. Sen. Doc 137, Part II, Chart I).
Mi*. Townsend pointed out to us that the extremities of the re-entrant avenues in
the western gullies were now apparently slightly curtailed, that a small break existed, not
marked in his map, in the first or eastern patch, and that the middle patches were thinned
off at their ends. But it seemed to me that in at least one part (of the westernmost patch
but one) the space occupied was broader than the map displayed ; and bearing in mind,
firstly, that the original survey was a rough one (as Captain Moser and his officers proved
by a partial resurvey this year), and, secondly, that the plotting of the occupied areas by
a bird's-eye inspection was rougher still, and, thirdly, that our visit was ten days earlier in
date than that of Mr. Townsend the year before, and fell by so much the more short
of the period of maximum expansion of the rookery, it seemed clear to me that at least
no such curtailment of the rookery's extent had taken place within a year as could be
certainly discerned by the eye or demonstrated on the chart.
(The " spreading " of the rookery as the season advances may be shown by a com-
parison of Mr. Macoun's photographs Nos. 2, 4, taken the 10th July, 1 896, with mine
No. 93 taken from the same station on the 80th J uly.)
On the hauling-ground above the eastern end of the rookery (still on the occasion of
our first visit) we saw a body of about 200 bachelors, mostly young or old, those of inter-
mediate " killable " size being very few. A " drive " had taken place two days previously
(the 6th July) from this rookery and the neighbouring one of Staraye Atil, at which 700
were killed. The circumstance that another drive on the 13th July from the same two
rookeries yielded 487 skins, and a final one, on the 24th July, 308, illustrates the fact that
the bachelors, at least, are never all at once upon the rookery, but keep coming and going
between land and sea, so that any one apparent clearance is never a complete one.
We counted a large number of harems with a view to ascertaining the average
number of cows. I, for instance, counted 34 harems west of the middle point of the
rookery, and obtained the following numbers :— 43, 14, 15, 16, 67, 15, 8, 1, 2, 3, 1, 4, 50,
4, 1, 26, 10, 3, 10, 1, 4, 16, 5, 7, 49, 19, 5, 1, 132, 31, total 563, giving an average of
about 16'6.
The large harem numbering 132 cows was by far the largest that we met with during
the summer. It was situated on the smooth flat rock above the last gully but one to the
west, its position being near the left of my photographs Nos, 90 and 91. The bull was
very large and active, going round and round his cows. In his immediate neighbourhood
were eight other well-grown bulls, one with fourteen cows, two with one each, the rest
with none.
On my subsequent visit on the 30th July this large harem we found to be broken
up anil apparently divided between six or aeven boll*. \\ithinashort di-tanec ot it were
:iid six \\rll--r.-\\ii lulls stiil " idle."
\\ i- lia\i leie illu-trated -e\eral elementary facts of seal economy ; for instance, tliat
tli u1 i- io n, i deration in the luill'- I, but that he gets to himself a- man\ cows as
be possibly can; that the haiems are as diverse in number as tin- bulls arc unequal in
strength and kiocitv/, that tin- harems, once formed, an- not immutable, hut may in the
• hi- linn.- :i up and . uted ; and that many Indk apparently in full
Mungth and vL nr, n.ay lor month.-. together Tail to establish a harem at all.
( HLiT partial counts nt' tin.1 rookery (still on our first vi-it) ga\ ;re,
:;:> 1 u>, 0 t 10 laveraiv 17), *7-4 to 54 (average Hi
on the whole an average of I 7' 4, and thiswa- very approximately the average that similar
•its dscvsncie afterwards I .1 u> to.
On the ."•Dth .inly Colonel Mima1, with Mr. Lucas and me. (ounted the
hart ins then existing on North Rookery, and found li'J.'i, with ahout 100 idle l)ulls.
Colonel Murra\'s stati-i'es lor the previous year yive 100 harems and .r>U idle Imlls.
l.'iT I. p. 87
•
Staray Afil.
The lookciv of Staraxc A til occupies, like several ethers (r.j/., at Zapadnie and Kast
KI ok( ri< - 'ii St. (!eor-e Island;, the place where :i comparatively level shore merges into
u lire of dills. The heveli . ol' the higher "round in such cases furnishes a uradual
which the body ol seals extends to a considerable elevation. At Staiaye Aid a
high .-rein hill-side .»U)|K-. in scmi-eircular lonn to a shingly tract facing northward. In a
hollow bctueen is a small lake, the rcstm_- place of innumerable kittiwakes. Beyond the
•in point i.l'tlie bay the eoa-t bends at a sharp an^le south-westward, and changes to
a line of dill's, precipitous, inaccessible, and unapproachable. The sharp ascending
summit-line ol the be^ininnir ot the clirl's forms the boundary of the hollow. The main,
rookery laces ninth-west, occupying the border of the slope towards the edge of the
precipice, to ahout. half-way up. On the front of the green hill-side, two thick patches of
wild celery (aiii/rUni) lonn a conspicuous land-mark, and around these and below them is
visible the outline of the old haulim;-i:round, less distinct than in the photographs of 18!J>J.
On the :>0th July a considerable body of bachelors was seen hijjh on the bill above the
main rookery. \\hiL-otherhachekis and idle bulls congregated in small numbers on the
beach.
A comparison between Mr. Townscnd's photo<;rapb No. 38 (18th July, 1895) and
min i (7th July, 1896) or No. MJ (30th July) shows clearly enough that no
conspicuous chaime had taken place in the rookery within a twelvemonth, while u
comparison of tl.e last two, taken at an interval of three weeks, shows that in the course
of the sui-oi' the rookery had spiead somewhat further up the hill and somewhat further
lioin the edire «.f the din".
In this rookery Colonel Murray counted, in my presence and Mr. Lucas's, on the
30th July, seventy-five harem- and sevent.y-tive idle bulls. His statistics for 18'J5 give
sixtv harems and forty idle bulls.
Zapadnie (St. George").
Thi- r.'okery occupies the southern half of a wide bay on the south-west side of the
island. To the southward. I araye Atil, beyond the point .vhich tcrminaU-s the hay,
a line cf high dill's succeeds to a level stretch of shore. The rookery CODSMtl ol two
elongated patches on the beach and a third larger patch which partly lies below ami
partly a-eends the sloping ed^e of the rising ground where tin- leach iiicri.'- - into the dills.
Tie main hauling-ground for the bachelors lies between the t\\o latter portions, and al>
and behind the last.
UV tiiM visited this rookery on the Utb and llth July.
The lir>t or northernmost patch upon the beach then contained thir;y-t,\o harem-,
the nine lar-c-t e.amtinu' from ten io thirty-three co\\s the ic-t varvinu Iroin o-.u upwards.
giving (at t: the low aveiage . I '.>•:.' COWi to each. Tweiity-lour lir-. idle bulls
were counted in the immediate neighbourhood. '1 he great number of idle bulls in all
- \\a> a con-pic'..(".:i feature of this rookery.
• middle patch of the same rookery is somewhat larger.
I' .tli of the-e patches appeared to be somewhat narrower than Mr. Townsi-nd had
rcprtsented them in his chart of IS'Ja, but the first patch seemed to me somewhat more
6
elongated along the shore in a northerly direction. At this date the region close to the
water was in both photographs almost unoccupied, and in neither case did the harems rise
up above the sloping tract to the level of the higher ground. They had to some extent
spread out backwards by the time of our second visit on the 1st August.
The south end of the rookery is of greater extent and much more populous. It
commences where the level ground meets the cliffs. The harems .ascend the slope, on
which a broad shelf or "bench" gives a convenient habitation for many, and a small
number of harems run along the beach for a short distance below the first stretch of
ascending cliffs. Reference both to the map and the photographs tends to show that this
rookery has diminished in recent years. We must make some allowance for the fact that
our first photographs of this year were taken (llth July) before the spreading of the
rookery had begun, and that my second series were made (1st August) when many cows
had begun to go to sea ; but, nevertheless, it is evident that Mr. To;vnsenu's photographs
Nos. 39 and 40 (18th July, 1895) depict a larger body of seals, both on the slope of the
hill and in the distant patches of the rookery, than do my corresponding ones, No. l.'i
(llth July) and No. 98 (1st August). Mr. Macoun's photograph No. 50 of the
29th July, 1892, shows also a decidedly larger mass of seals on the slope of the hill than
<lo Mr. Townsend's pictures of 1895.
This reduction of numbers on Zapadnic is, 1 think, unmistakable, and it deserves to
be pointed out that there seemed to be no particular circumstances attending our
inspection of this rookery, no special facilities for our close examination of it, such as
might account for a decrease being here more easily demonstrated than on other rookeries
where we failed to observe it.
On the other hand, while the photographs undoubtedly give indications of a
diminution, its extent must not be exaggerated. On comparing my photographs above
quoted of the llth July and 1st August, we see that on the slope of the hill there were
far fewer seals present at the latter than at the former date, while a very large number ave
congregated below the cliff. In this latter situation there appeared to me to be at least
1,000 pups. The day was exceptionally bright and warm, and ] think the rookery was in
part deserted. Moreover, Colonel Murray's actual count gives us for ]89b' 182 harems
and 100 idle bulls, against 110 and 50 respectively for 1895. For this reason I can lay
little stress on the apparent indications of decrease since last year, although I think that
in the longer interval since the taking of Mr. Macoun's photograph of the 20th July,
1892, the diminution in this particular locality is distinct and considerable.
East Rookery.
East Rookery lies along a convex shore near the extreme end of the north side of the
island. In the eastern portion of the rookery, as at Zapadnie and Staraye Atil, the low-
lying shore merges into a line of cliffs, and the harems are in part scattered upon the
connecting slope and in part distributed further eastward beneath the cliffs. The open
part of the tract, on which are four or five patches of seals, is divided by a small point
and terminated by another. A little lake intervenes between the first point and the sloping
hill. On the rough face of the latter, as at Staraye Atil, is the main body of seals, thinly
.scattered and not nearly covering the whole face of the hill. On this portion and on the
beach below are about sixty bulls with harems. On the more inland portion of the slope
and around and behind the little lake, are congregated the bachelors. On the shore in
front of the lake, and again between the two western points, are colonies of sea-lions, the
first including about 150 individuals, the others much smaller. Still further to the
westward is yet another point occupied by sea-lions; and between this and the former one,
well up beyond the beach, are bands of bachelors.
On the beach between the lake and the first point were about twenty harems, between
the two points thirty-three, and below the cliffs to the eastward of where our joint count
began Mr. Lucas counted nineteen.
Little East Rookery.
This little rookery occupies a rough stretch of very rocky shore, about 400 to 500
yards west of East Rookery. We found it to contain forty bulls with harems.
In the case of the small rookery of Little East, the photographs give an adequate picture
of the breeding herd. I think that a comparison of Mr. Townsend's photograph No. 39
(18th July, 1895) with mine No. 2 (9th July, 1896) or No. 84 (29th July, 1896) shows
very clearly that the rookery was at least as well filled last year as the year before.
Taking Fast and Little Fast together. Colond Murr.iv counted (1-1 Au-us; .
17!) harems and .V. idle bulls.tli.it is to ~a\. about as i-.iany liar . .pa Inie and
hut half as inanv idle bulls. His tiirmcs for give 105 hareOla 'tic
K.ist •_'.',) iMid (50 idle hull> (BMl !0, Little Ka-t
(I may lien- venture lo say ir parcnthesiN that, \\hilc Colonel Mi, nuinenitiuii
always seemed to r.< -arclul. I vat on tin.- urea-ion oftliisvi-.it particularly imprc-M-d
by hi> punctilious accuiacy. While in cv«-r\ CUM liis count nc.u-ly tallied u it'll inv o\\n.
in c\cry M-c-tion of the ru,>kerv hi- led mine by a unit or t\\o, >ho\\
'ie had every hcie and there deteeted a harem which had (--.raped my eye.)
In the follow in.: table ol stat i-t ir- Irom St. Maud, I have set -iile by si. a- the
re-ults ot' this year \\it;i tho.-e of last. For th:~ :ave the count of ban-ins (and
idle bulls) made by Colonel .Murray in company with Mr. I d inv-rll. The nun
ol cows i- c-liiniited, tirst, on the !>a>i- of \~''^ cows to the a' ie bar. in- ;
• ndly, pin- the addition of 7~> per cent, deduced trom our count of pups on Kctavic,
•mil elsewhere, which count, showed to that extent a larger number of pups than of cows
present at anyone time (riilr int'ni, pp. 9, KM. For l^'.lo we have, firstly, Colonel
Murray's similar count of bulls and of harems, which lie then made out to he over
>ei cent, less numerous than last year; the OOWi lie i-timated at 40 to a harem, as
airain-i our extreme coi rected estimate of 30-2 (I7'3 X j7,;"',,), nevertheless producing a
total. ".J per cent, below that accepted lor this year by the American Commissioners and
by ourselves. l.a-tly. we have for is*).") the rou^h estimate based on average of
^b -si--. True and Townsciid, who place the number of cows at over 55 per cent, less than
the number admitted to exi-t this year; and the fact that, according; to these gentlemen,
the number ot' bulls \\as comparatively hi^h (only K) per cent, below our own), is not of
equal importance, for their estimate was based primarily on the cows, and the hulls were
not counted at all.
STATISTICS for St. George Island, 1895-(.i(i.
1895.
1896.
MTJT.
Colonel Murray.
Meun. True *nd
Town-wild.
Colonel Murray.
Dr. Jordan.
Haremi.
Idle Uiill<
Cowi
at 40.
Harrmi. Cowi.
Haremi.
1.11.- Bnlts.
}
Cow.
•117-3.
Cowi
+ 75 |x-r
Nurili
40
I.UMII
17."> -'.-'"
li "I
3,H'J1
MM
Staray,- A til 60
:,n
.' Hi" 87 1.398
75
75
1,297
2,269
Zapai'lnir.. 110
50
l.mii 174
182
100
.•5,118
5.50H
East . . 80
40
3,200
92 1,476
135
2,335
4.085
•j:.
20
1,000
33 .V-T
44
761
1,381
Tota'i . . 375
200
13.
| *
061
335
11,432
M
I do not ill this case, nor in other similar cases in the sequel, quote my friends,
Messrs. True and Townsend, with the least int-ntiou of imputing inaccuracy to their
observations. On the contrary, I shall take pains to show in another place that we have
ample indication- ot the care and accnracv with which their estimate was made, according
to their opportunities and the knowledge current in their time. It i- Dr. Jordan's own
di-covery of the fact that no enumeration of cows, even ut the "height of the season,"
come- within "."» per cent, of the actual number appertaining to the rookery, that has
thrown a new light upon the question and shown us that such numerical c-timates as
those of Messrs. True and Townsend were utterly misleading, in spite of all their care and
truth and accuracy.
I do not claim the right to draw from these discrepant figures any po-itivc evidence
of an actual increase of the herd on St. (! corse's Island between the seasons ot l^'.)."> ;:ml
1896, or at least any accurate measure of such an apparent, increase. But, on the other
hand, it is abundantly citar that we have no evidence at all to show a di during that
period, and further that the state of the herd upon the island i- at Ica.st very much better
than it was believed to be on the authority of the American Agents of 1895.
8
ST. PAUL ISLAND.
Ketavie.
The rookery of Ketavie lies on the eastern side, near the south end of St. Paul Island,
on the opposite side to, but within a short walk of, the village. It runs along the shore
for nearly a mile of coast-line, beginning some 300 yards from Ketavie Point, along the
northern shore of a crescent-shaped bay, and then extends from Ketavie Point due north
to another point forming an artificial boundary between it and Lukannon. The first
portion south of the point occupies a steep beach, shingly and rocky. The northern
portion consists of straight stretches interrupted by small coves or bays, of which the last
one is next to Lukannon, and forms a natural amphitheatre. Close to the water's edge the
shore consists of an entablature of columnar basalt, above which a shelving slope, gravelly
and stony, leads with or without bolder interruptions to the level ground above. The chief
hauling-ground lies near the south end of the rookery, and is approached from seaward in
the neighbourhood of Ketavie Point. The rookery affords peculiar facilities for close
inspection, and the counts made upon it are of particular importance.
We visited Ketavie for the first time on the 13th July. In the little amphitheatre-
shaped bay already mentioned I then counted 500 cows, and Dr. Stejneger, counting
independently, made out 501. Taking the bay and a little tract adjoining', 1 counted
thirty-five harems with from 1 cow to 80 (the next largest being rl~--, and the next 53), and
with a total number of 78 i, giving the large average to each of 22'1. There were rather
more than twenty idle bulls within this area.
On the next portion, which consists of a broken terrace of columnar basalt, with a
narrow sandy acclivity behind, I found the first twenty-five harems to include 395 cows
(1 to 56), giving an average of 15'2. The further counts made on this occasion need not
lie recapitulated. They were not complete, and only give an idea of the average size of
the harems.
My photograph of the middle portion of Ketavie, looking towards Ketavie Point
(No. 16, 13th July, 18!)6), coincides in position with that of Mr. Macoun (No. 16,
25th July, 1892) and that of Mr. Tovvnsend (No. 14, 20th July, 1895). 1 cannot detect
any appreciable difference in the number of seals represented in the three.
The small bay already twice alluded to is beautifully depicted in Mr. Townsend's
photograph No. 13 (20th July, 1895), and is also very clearly portrayed in my No. 15
(13th July, 1896). It seems to me that there are actually considerably more seals figured
in the latter picture. However, I do not wish to press this point too much, for it may he
that at the later date a larger number of cows were feeding at sea. But, on the other hand,
Mr. Townsend's photograph does not show any great preponderance of pups, and at the
date when it was taken the older females have not, as a matter of fact, betaken themselves
in large proportion to the water. My companion picture (No. 116), taken on the
8th August, 1896, shows, however, that by that time a partial exodus has taken place, and
the spot is black with a crowd consisting almost wholly of pups grouped around the bulls.
Moreover, the photograph at this last date shows the rookery dispersed much higher up
the ascent, the earlier photographs — mine and Mr. Townsend's — alike showing the rookery
in its earlier, more restricted condition.
Whether or not there he any reasonable grounds for suspecting an increase, I am
perfectly certain in my own mind that there is no evidence at all of recent diminution in
this rookery.
On the same date (j3th July) of our first visit Colonel Murray counted 190 harems
and 100 idle bulls (according to the list communicated to me by him on the 7th September).
At the average rate adopted by us of 17'3 cows to a harem at this period, that number
would give 3,217 cows. The figures adopted by Dr. Jordan (Preliminary Report, p. 16}
show 182 harems, and (at the same average) 3,152 cows, an unimportant difference. In
1895 Colonel Murray set the total at 200 harems and 5U idle bulls.
It was in this rookery, after noticing the apparently disproportionate number of pups,
that Dr. Jordan initiated the crucial experiment ol counting the latter. The count of
living pups on Ketavie was performed on .the loth August, and shewed the surprising
number of 6,04'.). This figure represents an increase of 91 per cent, over what we had at
first believed to exist on the basis of Dr. Jordan's entire estimate, or of bS per cent, on
the basis of Colonel Murray's.
Note. — Dr. Jordan's figures for the other rookeries are calculated by adding 75 per
cent, to these furnished by the count of harems in the earlier part of the season after
9
allowing, as was then done, 17*3 COWS to a harem. Tin- -trict count made upon Ketavie
would, as is above -hown. permit tin- addition of J)0 per cent. rather than lit per cent., and.
indnd. Dr. Jordan himself speak- ( Preliminary Hi-port, p. '20) of the number of pup- on
any rockery bein_- nearly doulile the greatest number of eo\\ - counted upon it at :
time. The lower figure is adopted on the ground of a lower result obtained on l^tuoon
Rookery and the Reef of Zapadnie.
We i:;ay now sum up the statements made for thi> .ud last as to the number of
female -eal- on K< t,.vie.
Mr. True (Sen. Doe. l-°.7. Part II, p. 101, ' ves as the result of an actual count
made between the Sth ami 10th July, ISO."., a total number of L'.IMO.
In the same year Colonel Murray estimated the number at *,000, using the very hL'h
avenue of forty cows to a harem. Had he set the average at thirty, a number that would
now -ecru to be a more reasonable one, his result would have tallied almo-t ex. icily with
the n'.oiJt that were this year demonstrated by actual count of the pups; and if we add to
Mr. 'hue's actual count of -,<> lo tin increase of 01 per cent, to which the count of the
pups now ntitles us, we 'each the figures of 5,042 for 1895, a number which may or not,
we plca-e, he employed to indicate a positive increase since that time.
It is noteworthy that this rookery of Ketavic seemed to the gentlemen who inspected
it rive or six years ago to present particularly 'erious indications of loss and diminution.
In his Report "for 1893 (Sen. Doc. l.T, I 'art II, p. I), 189G) Mr. Townsend says:
"Keta\ie. now 'he thin:u--t rookery on the islands, shows a percep'.ihle decrease since
•J. This decrease is perceptible in some, if not all, of the photographs of the
rookery." And, Hiram, in the following year, Mr. Townsend says (ibid., p. 12): "This
small and gradually diminishing rookery, I believe, siiows a shrinkage since last season,
but not a very marked one." It may be remarked that in this last Report this was the
only instance on St. Paul Island in which Mr. Townsend chronicled a shrinkage since the
18 vear.
Lukannon.
Lukannon Rookery is in reality, as has been stated already, continuous with Ketavie.
It runs irorn the end of the latter rookery along half-a-mile or so of rocky shore, till the
rocks end in the sandy beach that stretches all the way to Half-way Point and Polavina
keiv. The hauling-grourul is at the northern end, near the sandy beach. This long
sandy beach later on in the season, in late August and September, is thickly dotted with
bulls (rum the adjacent rookeries, as are the sands of Middle Hill and English Bay on the
other side ot the island. The hauling-ground of Lukannon is said to be remarkable for
the large proportion of young males that its drives furnish, and is spoken of on the islands
• the nursery " in con-eqiicnce.
• photograph- (Maei.un's No. 0-1, (Jih August, 185)2, Townsmd's No. 1 1, 20th July,
]-!>5. and mine No. L'2, 13th July, No. 23, 15th July, and No. 119, 8th August, 1896)
are on different scales and for the most part from different points of view, and hence do
not give us very much information as to the relative states of the rookery; but, so far as
they can be compared, my No. 119, when regarded together with those of the earlier
year-, -how- no perceptible decrease.
li struck me on our first visit (loth July) that idle bulls were very numerous here at
that time, and that the harems were, on the average, of large size. At a convenient point
in the middle of the rookery I found the adjacent harems, 1 1 in number, to contain
respectively 4?, 4, 'Jo, 17, (50/47, 6, 7, 19, 43, 22 cows, a total of 302 and an avei
of27-.j.
The count accepted by Dr. Jordan give-* 147 harems for the rookery, or 2,54-T c»
at the usual average ot 17'3, and 4,450 breeding cows, allowing for nn increase of
75 pi; cent, on that number. Colonel Murray gave me for the same rookery hi- count
made on the 13th July, which places the bulls" and harems at 205, with idle bulls at 1
For 1895 Colonel Murray placed the numbers at 300 harems and 200 idle bulls, but it
must be remembered that for that year Colonel Murray's stati-tic> were in round
mauler- and profe-sedly less accurate "than for 1800. Mcs-r-. True and Townsend for
1895 only admitted L',07^ cows for Lukannon Rookery.
Layoon.
This little rookery occupies a shingly spit which stretches across from Tolstoi Hill
nearly to tic harbour," and separat hay on which the harbour is situated Irom a
[313] D
10
broad, shallow, muddy lagoon. In stormy weather the waves break right across the spit
on which the seals lie. l$o seals are driven from this small rookery.
On this rookery Messrs. True and Townsend made a careful census on the 10th July,
1895, " passing in front of the rookery in a boat, using a low-power field-glass. The
harems were separated here by considerable intervals, and as the whole rookery was in
plain view, there was no obstacle to counting." The numbers thus obtained were
82 harems and 1,264 cows. Colonel Murray's figures are in this instance discrepant, as
he states the number at only 50 harems, with no idle bulls.
I fancy that in this particular case Messrs. True and Townsend's census was the
more accurate of the two, and that Colonel Murray's was probably based on a more
distant view.
In 1896 Dr. Jordan, accompanied by Mr. Clark and Mr. Macoun, walked over the
rookery, making a close count of bulls, cows, and pups. They found 1*20 harems,
1,474 cows, and 2,484 pups. These figures give the low average of }'2'3 cows visible in a
harem, and of 20'7 (an increase of G9'3 per cent.) as the actual size of the average harem
estimated by pups. Mr. Murray's estimate of the n.;mber of harems in 1896 is very
similar to Dr. Jordan's, viz., llo, with 40 idle bulls. The general results therefore are
an increase of cows in sight over those witnessed by Messrs. True and Townsend in the
previous year, and a confirmation by the count of pups of the inadequacy of any single
inspection of the cows to givs a full account of the number appertaining to the rookery.
The less percentage of pups to cows in sight than in the count made on Ketavie is a
justification for abating (to 7.5 per cent.) the addition (9i per cent, on Ketavie) requiring
to be made to the average counts of cows.
Tolstoi.
This rookery occupies the rocky portion to the east and south of a great bay (English
Bay) in the middle of the southern coast of the island. The bay is for the most part sandy,
and where its shore becomes rocky again to the westward we have the rookeries of Greater
and Lesser Zapadnie.
At Tolstoi, to the southern end of the rookery, the seals occupy a rocky beach under
high cliffs or steep slopes (photograph 75), difficult of inspection until as the season
advances it becomes possible to penetrate into it. At the other end of the rookery,
towards the sands of English Bay, the rocks lie further back from the shore (photograph
Nos. 40, 74, &c.), and the seals are freely visible from the sands to the westward and from
various stations on the hill above. Between the rocks and the sea are sandy stretches, to
be afterwards referred to in my account of the dead pups. The chief hauling-ground is
above this latter portion of the rookery and on the more or less stony slope above the
adjacent portion of English Bay. Other tracts (photograph No. 39) in the middle of the
bay (Middle Hill) serve as hauling-grounds for this rookery and Zapadnie.
My first photograph of Tolstoi was taken on the. 25th July.
While in the more rocky parts of the rookery to the southward the seals lie scattered
in a manner similar to those on the other rookeries already described, at the other
extremity they lie in a dense mass (photograph No. 40), extending for some distance up
the hill at the extreme end of the rookery, but leaving almost vacant the smooth, sandy
interspace already alluded to. This rookery showed very markedly the change in outline
and in extent of ground covered by the seals at a later period in the season. By the time
our second series of views were taken (7th August, photograph No. 109), the sandy
interspace was largely occupied by seals, and harems were dotted among the stones
almost to the very top of the hill ; still later they reached the rock at the very top.
Mr. Townsend's views of this rockery are particularly fine and on a larger scale than
ours. His photograph No. 25 (24th July, 1895) would appear at first sight to show a
much larger number of seals than ours ; but it is taken at short, range and from a very
advantageous locality. When we take it in connection with its companion picture No. 26
and then compare the result with that of this year, the apparent difference tends in great
part to disappear.
Messrs. True and Townsend give us no complete and specific estimate of the number
of seals in this rookery for 1895; but Colonel Murray places the number of harems in
that year at 400, and of idle bulls at 250. In 1896 (16lh July) he estimated the harems
at 3'>5, and the idle bulls at 220; but Dr. Jordan and his party found somewhat later
389 harems on the main or northern part of the rookery and 168 more under the cliffs.
On the latter portion of the rookery the cows were counted and found to number 1,498, an
average of 13-87 to a harem ; and the live pups were afterwards counted to the number
11
of 2,'it', i, giving an inci 77'^ per cent, over the original count o! ,m are
of 'J (Mi to the c.i:intcd harems. The partial count of the i , 1>
Mr. Towiiseiid („/,. r//., p. .'5.')), "trom the point to the end of the (Ira-s Bluff," app
to correspond with the one above alluded to as " mrler the dill's." F,,r this area Mr. Towu-
-end give* I i;i harems and l.u.'W cows, an average of l.'HJtoa harem. These nn ulier
approximately identical with those of Dr. Jordan for 1896.
\\ Idle we nave thus no evidence ; . decrease of the rookery durinir the perm I
l^-llj '.)(!. yet it must in tin- a change is perceptible since tl:
photographs were taken in 1S'J! '.'_. Th<- great mass <>• uo-tly bachelor-,
in Dr. DawMiu'- photograph NO. :',."» ( I'.tth August. 1891), was far h.-\ond auvthiii
^ on the spot this \ear, and the rookery is, I tumk, undoubtedly more |iopulous as
rcpre.-cntcd in .Mr. Mac-nun' .70 and 71 (8th Anu
IS'.J'J). Tl A 'is the bachelors diminishes in
nnportance, it its importai •'. alU)'_rcihei vanish, when we remember the small
number killed upon the island during 1s'.' >, ISM. and 1892, a» compared with the
numiter slam lieiore and during our inspection of 1896; and as regards the breeding areas,
ins; 'cei ion ol the photographs above ijiiotcd suggests that the areas occupied have shifted
-nice that tiui". The pictures ?cem to me to indicate that while the seals extended cou-
•rahly beyond, thev were less numcrou.- immediately within, what is the present margin
ol the rookcn. Mr Towiiseiid himself allude* to such a change and the possible reasons for
it (nfi. cit.} when he -a\> that " allowance should be made for a change in the shape ol the
. itsel •', 100 feel or more of sand being tilled in the bight at the left end of the rookery."
But, m;iking the hest of the evidence in hand, I am quite prepared to believe that
Tolstoi Rookery is towards its northern extremity considerably poorer than it was five
Vcarc a 1:0.
Zapadnie (St. Paul).
This lariie rookery known also as Upper or Greater Zapadnie, fringes the rocky
western extremity of English Bay. The ground is low and irregular, consisting of patches
ol rock, tracts of broken stones, mid intervening spaces of sand. The -seals occupy the
shore for a -pace ol horn 1,500 yards to a mile, and run backwards, following more or less
closely the contour of the ground, in long re-entrant lines or avenues. Three of these
re-entrant line-, near the east end of the rookery, are conspicuous in photographs taken
from the direction of the adjacent rookery of Little Zapadnie, to the east. The rookery
terminates to the we-tward in a line of cliffs. The whole area covered by seals is very large.
The great c.\ten< and irregular distribution of the rookery render a bird's-eye
inspection or the comparison of photographs of little value. So far, as far as the photo-
graphs go, my photograph No. 33 (loth July, 1896) compares favourab'y with
Mr. Towiisend's No. 10 (20th July, 1805). The only picture showing evidence of a
once greater abundance is Mr. Macoun's No. 41 A, 1892, which covers the eastern
portion of those just alluded to; but when we reinspect the more recent pictures, we see
that, though the precise spot is bare, the adjacent ground immediately to the west is thickly
populated, and the evidence of the little area by itself bears no conclusion.
Little Zapadnie occupies the stony front of a knoll about 500 yards long, separated
from Greater Zapadnie by a small sandy bay (South-west Bav), into which runs a
streamlet from a lake. Patches of snow above the bay and rookery remain throughout
the summer, and tor:n a conspicuous landmark. The rookery is compact in form and
pretty thickly populated.
From the knoll of Lower Zapadnie a st ny beach extends eastward for about
1,000 yards to the sai ds of English I'ay, and along this beach arc scattered eitrht or nine
patches ol seals, which were spoken oi' collectively last year as the "Reef of Zapadnie."
These patches are approximately identical with Mr. Towiisend's chart of them for I •>!):"> ;
even a ver\ tiny patch immediately to the cast of Low: r Zapadnie being still occupied,
though only by a single bull and cow. (It probably contained no more than a single haiem
the previous year.)
For 1895 Colonel Murray estimated the whole area of Zapadnie (including l.o MI
Zapaduit and the " Reef ") to contain 500 harems, with 100 idle bulls. In 1896 (Kith
July) he placed the number at .077 and 4JI respectively, assigning -177 harems ami -Jin
inle bulls to Greater Zapadnie.
'4 he enumeration made under Dr. Jordan produced a result verv considerably in
excess of this, \i/.., 583 harems for Greater and 210 for Les.-er Zapadnie and 1 7<i
more for the Reef, a total of 96y in all. The cows were counted on Lesser Zapadnie
12
and the Reef to the number of 2,400 and 2,256 respectively, and the pups on the Reef
to the number of 3,862, showing on the latter breeding-ground 71 per cent, beyond the
visible number of cows.
Polavina.
This rookery, 'with its neighbour or outlier, Little Polavina, lies half-way along the
eastern coast of the island, at the far end of the long sandy shore that stretches north-
wards from Lukannon. In the centre of the rookery a long, low spit projects into the
sea, to the south of which are other low-lying, half-submerged reefs. Opposite to Ihese a
rocky terrace fringes the shore, and above it lies a broad, bare plateau, on which the seals
congregate. At the south end of the rookery the terrace is broken, and the ascent is
gradual from the beach. Beyond this point the beach is narrower, and its cliffs higher
(though not so high as to prevent frequent possibilities of ascent or descent), and in
these cliffs are (bund several deep recesses in the columnar basalt (photograph No. 55), each
occupied by its group of harems, while other harems are scattered sparsely below the
cliffs. The flat, hare plateau extends the greater part of the way to Little Polavina, a
distance of more than a mile, and about u id-way between the two rookeries a convenient
gully furnishes an ascent to it for the bachelors. The chief hauling-grounds are therefore
to tl.e south of Polavina, where the sands end and the rocks begin, half-way between the
two rookeries, and again around the rookery of Little Polavina. Little Polavina itself
(photographs Nos, £6, 57) is a small rookery surrounding the base of a small jutting
point. The seals lie for the most part on stony level ground, facing a low hillock above
the sea.
Of the rookery of Polavina we have two very excellent photographs antecedent in date
to our visit, viz., Mr. Macoun's, panorama, 60, 6i (6th August, 1892), and Mr. Townsend's
No. 9 (26th July, ^95). In Mr. Macoun's pictures taken later in the season, the seals
spread further back than in Mr. Townsend's, and the aspect of the picture is affected by
the different state of the tide, which in Mr. Macoun's nearly submerges the reefs ; but,
nevertheless, comparison of the two is plain and simple, and 1 arn quite unable to see
any sign of diminution in the later view. Indeed, it seems to me that the later picture shows
actually more seals than the earlier.
The evidence in regard to Polavina is very conflicting, and the condition of the
rookery deserves particular attention in the future. It seemed to me, and it seems on
reinspection of my photographs Nos. 52, 53 (23rd July, 1896), and Mr. Macoun's
No. 17 (15th July) and Nos. 69, 71 (28th July), that the rookery is less than the earlier
photographs show it to have been, but I saw nothing on the spot, and T can see
nothing in the photographic evidence to warrant Mr. Townsenci's strong assertion
(op. cit. p. 31), that, comparing 1895 with 1894, the " main rookery, situated on a compa-
ratively level tract, is shrunken perhaps 50 per cent, in dimensions.''
North-east Point.
The great rookery of North-east Point is by far the largest on the islands. It is
grouped around the sides cf a peninsula commanded by Hutchinson's Hill, an eminence
about 80 feet high. This hill lies towards the western side of the middle of the peninsula,
and on the shore below it and up the slope extends the most densely populated portion
of the rookery. The rookery begins on the west side of the narrow isthmus of the
peninsula on a rocky beach, and extends with a few slight interruptions to the extremity
of North-east Point, a distance of about 2,500 to 3,000 yards. About the middle of it's
length, where it skirts the hill, the ground is more sandy, and the space occupied by the
seals is much broader than elsewhere. The chief haulinu-grounds on the west side are
just to the northward and southward of the hill. On the east side the breeding-grounds
are much less extensive. On this side, nearly opposite to Hutchinson's Hill, is a rocky
cape about 250 yards long, known as Sea- Lion Point. On its northern and southern
shores (photographs Nos. 42, 43) ;:re small patches of harems; south of it, on the beach,
is a more considerable one (photograph No. 44). A large rookery (photograph No. 41,
Macoun's photograph No. 96) lies about 300 to 400 yards north of it, and a long narrow
strip fringes the greater part of the shore between this last and North-east Point. The
rookeries on the two sides of the peninsula are now distinguished by Dr. Jordan under the
separate names of Vostochni for the larger western portion and Morjovi for the smaller
part or parts On the east. The latter name is given in allusion to the once innumerable
wall uses that have left their whitened bones in witness of a slaughter more ruthless thau-
13
any that th seal- ! . been subjected to. When the store house on the isthmus
built, i1 to have bad i1. - -andy foundation.- paved with tliir.i-.iinK of tn-kless
ski:!!-. Ci.lni: itill c\i-t on Sea-Lion Point, on a smaller point mid
between tli.it ;i!id Nortli-i a-t I'oint. hctw.cii the two pate1 -,-Ml rookerv, ;:nd a'jain
at DM or two -m. ill points on the , side near the I ,r end of the peninsula. The
chief hauling-groundg ol Q the eastern sid" lie ju-t beyond Sea-Lion I'oint (p||.
graph N :iid an nnd the rookery beyond. Many seals aKo lianl out c!o-r to North-
I'oint itself. ! V ;n thi- -ic.it rookery tl\e si-aK are not driven all at once, but
UMially troin tin w -t .ani east didefl OH eon-, ctitive da\-.
V- i lie ea-tcrn poition of the rookery, our photographs i^ive i;ood pictures of
I a rue mass midway b Lion I'oint and tin- far end. This i- -ho.vn in
Mi. 'lownseiui's photograph v ' Mth .July, IS'I.'H. in Mr. Maeoun's No-. 1 and '2
(22nd July), and No. 5! ,;l No. 1M (Kith .Inly, 1896), ami less well
in mine N.I. II i 1 .'.th .Inlv. I'lien- i- no diiieivnee w hatsoever between the pictures
of thi- portion (,t the rookcn taken in lS(.).r) and i s'.t(i. (Tin- little patch marked hcyond
the irivat one on Mr. Townseiid's chart of 1895, was still distinctly recognisable, though
-hown in the photograi,:.
In Mi. .Macoun'- photographs of IS'.)-', the bachelor seals were very much more
nutneroii-. This fact, like the similar phenomenon already noticed at Tolstoi, may be
simply due to the small number killed at that time, but, to judge by the photograph, I
fain okerv itself wa- then somewhat larger.
On the western side of the rookery, looking from the top of I lutchinson's Hill,
we have an eiiorm.ms nnmhei ol seals in direct view. \Viili the older photographs
in hand, it appeared to me at my first visit (Kith -July) impossible to doubt that
a diminution of --als had taken place here since l^'.U '.>'2, and wider intervals separated
the MV.K iiom tlie hill, and, especially towards the south, the extent of this part
of the rook ined curtailed. The broad >t retch of sand here was almost bare
where in the IS'.J-J photographs it wa- thickly bestrewn. This impre»ion still remains
with me, but 1 am bom :y that it wa- weakened, and my estimate of its
nt diminished by my nt vi-it>. The extent to which the "spreading"
of the herd alter* the appearance of thi* rookery as the summer advances is
enormon-. I: \\..~ with complete astonishment that on the 9th August we found the
hnetiin- \temliiu up to the topmost rocks on the western side of the bill, and
surrounding the photographic- station from which we had three weeks before viewed them
at a distance. The effect i* >hown in Mr. Maeoun's photographs of the 10th August.
The (ariy photograph on which my tio.. impression of decrease has been based was that
taken by Mr. Macoun on the 20th Au^u-t, 1^92, a still later day allowing for still
. i cxteiisirn. between our photographs of 1896 and Mr. Townsend's
No. !i rJ4th July, ls9;")) i cj-.u detect no perceptible dirference.
The counts of this rookery are not very >ati> ...cioi •> . Kor 1S1JO Colonel Murray
estimated the harems (in round numbers) at 1,72;"); in Ib9t» (18th July) he found i,")95.
The ci h-ii- by Dr. Jordan's party fell considerably below Colonel Murray's figures, giving
only 'J7"> harems lor the wc.-tern and 29 :i tor the eastern side, a total of 1,268 for the
whole rookery. I cannot help thinking some cjualilication or supplement is required to
this estimate. It may he that the harems were all on the average large, or it may be that
the influx of younger .-ows added largely in the later part of the season to these numbers.
For the numbers are certainly surprising ; inasmuch as they would make the rookery out to
be only two ancl a-half times as large as Tolstoi and less than one-third larger than the
whole of Zapadi:ie, or, in other words, one-sixth smaller than the united rookeries at the
two ends of Knylish Hay : and it is certain that the apparent size of North-east Point
ixeiy is mcater than this, and that the yield of its killing-grounds is beyond the
proportion ot such an estimate.
Reef Rookery,'*
This rookery encircles the southern peninsula of the island, as that of North-east
Point SUIT '.mid- the northern. The western side of ttie rookery is known as Garbotch.
The small hay TO the south-west of the village has in its middle part a stretch of
some -2:>(> yards of sandy beach, sloping upwards to some sandy dunes, known as Xoltoi
Sands. Behind the dunes the u round continues to rise till it forms, on the ea-tern Me of
the isihmu-, a precipitous cliff, beneath winch lie many bachelors and halt-hull.-.
On the west side, facing the south half of the sands, is a StODJ ascent, on which and
on the stones I, clow the hoilox hikkie repo-e (photograph No. :
' Heyond the sands the ,-iiore of the bay consists i,t a rou-b narrow bead), at first with
low, rou-h -rassy cliii's above, fuither on with a hiirh bank of broken stones, and at the
[313] E
14
south extremity of the bay a long, high, bare, cindery acclivity, which rises towards the
"parade ground " or plateau.
All along the bay from Zoltoi Sands westwards are first scattered harems under the
cliff, then more numerous harems on the broad beach below the stony ground, and lastly,
on the lower portion of the szreat slope, a more numerous colony, running up here and
there in long lines to nearly half the height of the hill.
Beyond Gnrbotch, near, but to the west of the extreme point of the peninsula, is a
rocky beach with an ascending slope, commanded from above by a parapet of rocks. This
spot is known as the " Slide," and Dr. Jordan has accepted for it the Aleut name of
Ardiguen (photograph No. 62 ; Macoun's photograph No. 26, 25th July, 1892). This
spot was kept under close personal observation by Dr. Jordan, whose account of its daily
economy will be found on pp. 54-61 of his preliminary Report.
The east side of the peninsula constitutes Reef Rookery in the stricter sense. It
consists of a broad rocky beach, on which a nearly continuous band of harems runs from
the point to the isthmus. Towards the middle of the rookery are two shallow land-locked
pools of foul water, through which the bachelor seals flounder, or pass between them to
and from the extensive hauling-ground behind this portion of the rookery. The east
portion of the rookery does not extend so far to the north as the west, stopping short
at the isthmus, the eastern side of which is high and precipitous. Near the north end of
the isthmus on the east, opposite Zoltoi Sands, and behind the dunes, is a small bay in
which the bachelors haul out, and from the cliffs above which a close view of them may
be enjoyed unobserved (photograph No. 50).
The greater part of the peninsula proper is occupied by a smooth plateau, sloping
gently to the east (photograph No. 71), known as the parade ground. It is now for the
most part grassy, except near the western edge, where the seals ascend the slope of
Garbotch to it in small numbers. Two main and three smaller " pinnacles " rise above
the parade ground, and command the best views of the Eastern Rookery. Near the
southern end of the isthmus the ground is very rough and stony; near the southern end,
by the dunes, it consists of loose-blown sand, a short stretch of which is by far the most
arduous part of the journey to the seals driven to the village,
Between the dunes and the parade ground, on the route of the drives, is an old
killing-ground, whose use is not recollected. On this ground seals of all sizes appear to
have been slaughtered.
The smooth slope of Garbotch is the part of the rookery where we might expect
the photographic evidence to be clearest, and where we might hope to see most easilv
changes in the superficial extent of the herd. As a matter of fact, however, it is in just
such a place that the seasonal changes in area are so clearly perceptible and so striking
that they hopelessly confuse one's estimate of the changes that may have taken place from
year to year.
In Mr. Macoun's photograph No. 30 (20th July) and in my ]STo. GO and 61
(24th July), the seals only fringe the lower portion of the slope, except at the far end,
where a wedge-shaped mass runs up to about the middle. The appearance is practically
identical with that shown in Mr. Townsend's photograph No. 17 (20th July, 1895). But
the older photographs, such as Mr. Macoun's No. 74 (15th August, 1892), show the seals
spreading over the face of the slope and reaching its summit at both ends. Coming back
to the photographs of this year, we see the seals spreading far up the hill in Mr. Aiacoun's
photograph No. 65 (5th August) and reaching the top of it and invading the parade
ground in JSTos. 10.% 106 (31st August). It is here, in my opinion, certainly true, as has
been already said in so many other cases, that the photographs of 1895 show absolutely
no superiority in numbers over 1896, but that already quoted of 1892 does appear to show
somewhat more than those of the present year.
For the whole of Reef Rookery Colonel Murray estimated the number of harems at
1,000 for 1895 and 900 for 1S96; Dr. Jordan in the latter year placed the number at
831. On Ardiguen " or the Slide " Dr. Jordan counted 27 bulls, 550 cows (an average
20-4), and 652 pups (an average of 23 to a harem).
Besides the figures quoted and compared in the preceding account, we possess yet
another estimate of the breeding seals for 1895, that of Judge Crowley, Resident Agent of
the United states' Treasury on the islands. Mr. Crowley says in his Report (Sen.
Doc. 137, Part I, p. 35, 1896) "The breeding herd has been reduced to such
proportions that they can now be counted with comparative accuracy. I made the count
as follows : —
" St. Paul Island. Breeding cows, 73,696 ; bulls, 4,372.
"St. George Island. Breeding cows, 21,240; bulls, 1,180."
1C
It is obvious her-.' that the n umber of i -o\\ - i- estimated by .ij)|i|\ in- to the n i
bulls an ;i\ if eighteen eo\\s to eaeh harem. On(--halt' of the
irk;ihlc for thiM- agreement with Colonel Mm. - '|u.
other halt' arc lor ll eir complete discrepancy.
The numb'.'!- of hull* assigned to St. Paul Ishnd (vix.., -I. ''7-1 is very near
Colonel Murray for lS'.if, (vi/.. 4,'TJ")) and about identical v.
(vix... -4,:,
Hut .Ii: • 'ion <<>r St. < - three titu ;he
bulls than i iH Murray for the >a:iu- year ISM;,, and twice a. >>ig as Colonel
Mi; i- IS'.K;. the oilier hand, ot .Indue C row ley's lowe-ti'
eighteen cows to a harem is to bring out a number of eo\vs for S: . .imutcly
il to tl'is year's, but to give to St. I'aul for IN(»"> only three-fifths of what we now
believe to cxiM there.
Melon- passing fron, the later to the earlier numerical estimates. I would <!
a passage on pp. •_'<'. '2\, of Dr. Jordan's preliminary Report. Dr. Jordan
: —
"Accepting the figures ot last year, 70,423 COWS OT1 the rookeries would iiM'tin an
•of I'J cows. To ibis number must be added 'J.*»,000 to 40,000
virgin --year-olds and as many yearlings to lorm an estimate of the actual number of
eo\\s for IS! if). That the figures given by us for 1896 are slightly higher than those for
18<r .ot mean an increase in numbers sii • . but simply an increase in the data
on which an estimate may be made. Messrs. True and Townsend. for example, count
i) co\\s on Kitovi Kookery. This count is the most important element in their
estimate by acreage. In this estimate, Kitovi is given credit for 3^ per cent, of the total
number ">K This ti-inv car. not be far from the truth. But the fact that,
in l^'Jti, ii 'trie shrinkage, Kitovi shows fi.u t!) pups, demonstrates that the
fiirii: mts n ade at th •. of the season are far from complete: h',()-i
er c.nt. of HJi.i
Ndw, passing over the apparent laet that the phrase " in spite of some shrinkage"
-iii-s of a beiriimir of the ijiR'stion. the one lliini; that this paragraph appear* to me to
prove is the surprising accuracy o< True and Townsend's estimate ot 3$ per cent.
ic proiiortionate value of Keta\ie to the total seal population of the i.-lands. For if
we tiikc viur own count for IN! Hi as visible on Ketavie at the height of the
on and multinly it first in the proportion of J5;J per cent., as Messrs. True and
Town-end did, to tind the total seal population of the islands, and then add 73 per cent, to
the icsult, as Dr. Jordan has shown it i.s necessary to do. we ^ct the result of 147,090 for
the breed i: in the rookeries for 1896, a surprisingly close approximate to the
1 |:'.o71 i! actually found. In short, so far as it goes, the whole count
decidedly opposed to any siirus of tit her local or general decrease, and would strongk
tempt us to accept Messrs. True and To\Mi>e;id's estimate (as corrected by Dr. Jordan;
ot l'J.'}.'J4" breeding-cows for the two islands in 1895 as not far from correct.
Earlier Numerical Kxtiiiint.es.
When it is so manifestly impossible to reconcile the statements made or to reali/.e
the conditions that obtained so lately as 1893, it is natural that earliei uld
lead us into still greater uncertainties and difficulties. !>y far the most important of such
early estimates is that of Mr. II. \V. Klliott in 1*7'J 7-K an estimate repeated by him in
iMiii. ;,ort on the Pribylott Islands In II. \V. Klliott, Paris edition, . !).
(/ . and '• Monoziapii of the Seal Islands," edition, '18*1, | .) The
essence of Mr. Elliott's computation lies in his belief that the number i-» in d
ratio to the superficial extent of the rookery. His statement is exceedingly precise, and
may be here quoted (Report, pp. 1 "> an i h>
;' At the close of my investigation, during the first n-a-on of my labour on the
grounds in 1873, the fact' became evident that the breeding Mall •! impli'-iily an
imjierative and instinctive natural law of distribution, a !a>\ i/.ed by each and e
seal upon the rookeries, prompted bv a line eoiisciousi.e-s ()i --"y to it- own «
being. The hreeding-grounds occnpii d by them were, tlieiefore. invaria!> by
the seals in exact ratio, greater or k-s as the area up.iii which they rested was larirci oi-
lier. '!'hey always covere.i tiu -round evenly, never cro\\t;in_' m at one pi • to
•er out there. The svals lie just as thickly together when- the rookeiv is houni!
"In its eligible avea to their rear and unoccu; led by them as they do in the iitli
which are abruptly cut oil and narrowed by rocky \\all- behind. Kor instance, on a
16
of ground, under the face of bluffs which hemmed it in to the land from the sea, there are
just as many seals, no more and no less, as will be found on any other rod of rookery-ground
throughout the whole list, great and small, always exactly so many seals, under any and
all circumstances, to a given area of breeding-ground. There are just as many cows,
bulls, and pups on a square rod at Nali Speel, near the village, where in 1874, all told,
there were only 7,000 or 8,000, as there are on any square rod at North-east Point, where
1,000,000 of them congregate."
"This fact being determined, it is evident that, Justin proportion as the breeding-
grounds of the fur-seal on these islands expand or contract in area from their present
dimensions, the seal will increase or diminish in number.
" The discovery, at, the close of the season 1872, of this law of distribution, gave me
at once the clue I was searching for in order to take steps by which I could arrive at a
sound conclusion as to the entire number of seal herding on the island."
After further discussing the case he savs (on p. 18), "Taking all these points into
consideration, as they are features of fact, I quite safely calculate upon an average of
2 square feet to every animal, big or little, on the breeding-grounds, as the initial point
upon which to base and intelligent computation of the entire number of seals before us."
Jt is on this estimate that Mr. Elliott bases his computation of 3,030,000 seals of all ages
on the breeding-grounds for the Island of St. Paul in 1872-74, and 160,670 for that of
St. George.
I believe, after careful perusal of Mr. Elliott's work, that he maintains precisely the
same position as to the number of seals on the ground in 1890. He states indeed that the
bulls were fewer and wider apait, but also that the harems were immensely larger ; and
though I do not quite understand the process of survey by which in the latter year he
arrived at an estimate of the "average depth" of the rookery, yet, having done so, he certainly
calculates it? population at the same ratio of one seal to 2 square feet.
Now it is perfectly certain that no rookery last year, nor in the preceding year,
presented to any observer so great a density. Where the dead bodies were lyin^ almost as
close as they could lie on the killing-ground at Polavina, they occupied an average space of
13^ square feet to each body (c/. Jordan, Preliminary Report, p. 20), and on Ardiguen
Dr. Jordan measured the space occupied by a single harem of thirty-three cows, and found,
within the limits of a single harem, a space of 8 square feet for each seal (loc. cit.) Not one
of our observations and not one of our photographs shows on the more rocky rookeries a
density (taking the harems collectively) near so great as this. The conformation of the
ground and the interspersal of the boulders must at all times, as it does now, have
prevented anything approaching to so nniforrnily compact a distribution of the seals. But
it is not necessary to do more than cite the opinion of the American Commission of 1896
as expressed by Dr. Jordan, who in arguing concerning Messrs. True and Townsend's
estimate of 23 square feet to each seal on the most crowded rookeries (Report 1895), and
considering it excessive, says (p. 20), " Where seals are massed on rookeries, the space
occupied by each seal is more nearly 12 than 23 square feet," and further that the
46 square feet which Messrs. True and Townsend's estimate for the more rocky and less
densely populated localities is, as a matter of fact, doubtless too low. "We cannot believe,"
Dr. Jordan also says (p. 19), " that even in the most favourable times the fur-seals were
evenly crowded over the rookeries, and it is evident that as they grow fewer this
arrangement tends to become more sparse, especially on rocky slopes and boulder-strewn
beaches.''
J need not follow out in detail the deduction that such newer estimates involve in the
numbers put forward by Mr. Elliott, but I may say that, taking Mr. Elliott's calculation
of 3,190,000 breeding seals on the rookeries of both islands in 1872-71, deducting from
that number the 90,000 bulls (Report, p. 90), and dividing the balance by 6 (to give
instead of 2 feet for a seal the 12 feet that Dr. Jordan admits for each cow on the most
crowded portion of Tolstoi, Preliminary Report, p. 18), we get the reduced number of
516,000, which is only about three and a halt times as great as that which we know to exist
now.
'\ he calculation is of no great importance, and in making it we admit far too much, in
particular that every part of every rookery was then as densely rilled as is the most crowded
spot to-day. But however much these figures may be twisted and the case reargued, it
is perfectly clear that Mr. Elliott's gigantic computation can never again be upheld as a
reasonable statement of the numbers that once existed on the islands, or with which the
present numbers ought to be compared.
But if we refuse to admit Mr. Elliott's estimate of the seals, let us try to accept his
measurement of areas. His surveys, lie tells us (Report on the Pribyloff Islands in 1890,
Paiis edition, 1893, p. 19), were made with all scientific precautions in 1872-74 by measured
1
baseline and a/.iiimtli compass, in IMH) with a tine prismatic compass, and in 1*7 I with tin
telp of • trained topographer, Lieuteaanl Maypard. "There i- IMP more difficulty," he
says (p. 17), •' in surveying these --i-al margins during this week or ten days (10 '20) in .Fulv
than then- is in drawing sights along and around tin- curbs of a stone fence surroundii
Held." Hi- tells us that in 1890 there wen 0,000, ud in i^7J , -17,000 seal- ,„, Lagoon
Rookery ; and as In- estimate- tlii> number on h-s usual computation of •_' s<juarc feet toi
each, it tollous that lie .'- ascribing to tint rookerv an area of 18,000 and 74,000 square
feet n -pcctivcly in the -aid \ear-. Yet Mosrs. True and Tuwnseiid give t lie occupied
area on Lagoon Rookery in l^'.t.". as V_YJ | | square feet, l| time- what .Mr. Klliott asserted
five year- lie
For l.iikamion and Ketavie lie gives tin- measurement in 1890 as 1 l.">,O.~>ii and .~>l>,000
respectively, a total of :jdl ,<>.~>i ' : it wa-. 'j'21 ).:'.!•'. sqe.uv tcet by Messrs. True and
Tounseiid's measurement- live yeai- later.
Por Tolstoi be givei i2i.s"n -quan- feet in 1890; Mewn. Trae and Towmeod give
:M'»,«00 in 1S«)'). For the entire Maud of St. I'aul he uive- 1 ,7 ")7.1B4 square feet in 1890;
Messrs. I .md Towuseud -ivc '^.'2()'2.i)~)! in iN'J.'i.
The di-esepancies on St. George are equally surprising. \\> may expiv-.- them he-t
in a tabular form : —
1
Vrt-a in J^quare Feet
•
Rook
Kllii.tt, 187!
Elliott, 1890.
Messrs. Trui-
and
Townsend, 1895.
X:ip:i(iiHf
:MV:I Atil
\ Tth
I.ittlr 1. til
36,0i'(i
60,-
152.500
25.500
:>{>.
24,000
32,000
77,040
9.600
18,200
12«,171
64,329
128,868
24,254
67,Hsi
Totals..
325..J40
160,846
413.506
Leaving aside for the moment the statements whose extravagance, 1 believe, we have
adequately demonstrated, we may fall back on the plain and simple way of estimating the
actual yield of the rookeries and the decrease of their productiveness; that is to sav, we
may >et tiu- '.n,000 skins taken this year against the 100,000 that were u;ot with neither
le-,s nor more difficulty (Cf., Jordan, Preliminary Report, p. 22) in the plenitude of the
supply. We should then have to admit that the herd was now something less than
one-third of \\hat it was twenty years ago. Even in this admission \\c admit too much,
for, apart irom other corrections that might be suggested, we should surely add for the
purpose of such a comparison to the 30,000 taken on the islands the number of males
taken in the sea, but this, for lack of better knowledge of the proportion of each sex and
age in the pelagic catch, we cannot do. But if we fall bank on l)r. Jordan, we find him
placini: (/or. rit.) the number of breeding female- in 18SO at, "at least," lour times as
many as in 139-5. It is not worth arguing whether we should say three times rather than
four, tor either number is vastly different from those which we have been of late
accustomed to hear maintained and reiterated.
In the preceding account I have not attempted to prove that there has been n<>
decrea-e. m nerai or local, in recent years, but I have sought to show how inadequate and
conflicting i> Ihe evidence at hand to prove such a decrease. The matter with which we
are immediately concerned, and as to which we have most evidence at hand, is the
relative state of the rookeries in 180-3 and 1-V!)'J. ll;;d the decrease in the rookeries been
.ireat and evident as it wa- reported to be up to 1895, the next twelve months should
Mirely have shown -un- -till more unequivocal of continued impoverishment of the
impoverished -tock. The photographs show us time after time, with very few exception-.
an identical record. The harems on St. George weiv counted in both year> by the same
gentlemen, and all the rookeries but one *ho\\ a iarnc incica-c in the latter year. In the
.only iii>taiice .»n St. Pf.ul Island where the cow> were actually counted in both \eai-.
viz.', on the Lagoon, they were one-sixth more numerous when counted in 18!»'i; ami
[313 | F
18
when the pups were counted on the same place they were twice as numerous as the cows
were supposed to be in 1895. Though Colonel Murray's count of harems for St. Paul in
Ib95 was approximate only, and expressed in round numbers of hundreds and fifties, it
only exceeded by -f^th (4625 to 4348) that of Dr. Jordan in 1896 ; in three instances,
Lagoon, Tolstoi, and Zapadnie, it fell far below it.
I do not analyse these statistics further ; tiiey furnish clear and instructive lessons to
those whose business it may hereafter be to unravel them further.
The following is a tabular recapitulation of the figures quoted in tin- preceding
pages : —
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20
Lastly, let me take Mr. Elliot's categorical statements regarding the condition of the
rookeries in 1890 (Cf. cit., p. 91).
1. There is but one breeding bull now upon the rookery-ground where there were
fifteen in 1872 ; and the bulls of to-duy are nearly all old, and many positively impotent.
2. This decrease of virile male life on the breeding-grounds causes the normal ratio of
fifteen or twenty female to a male, as in 1872-74, to reach the unnatural ratio of fifty to
even 100 females to an old and enfeebled male.
3. There is no appreciable number of young males left alive to-day on these
"hauling" or non-breeding grounds to take their place on the breeding-grounds, which
are old enough for that purpose, or will he old enough, if not disturbed by man, even if
left alone for the next five years.
Not one of these statements (I am not discussing the first clause) is true to-day.
The bulls show no signs of senility or impotence ; they are not " inert and somnolent," as
Mr. Elliot said two pages before. But they are in the highest degree active, vigorous, and
bellicose. Every rookery is surrounded by "idle" bulls, most of them to all appearance
as robust and virile and full-grown as their more fortunate brethren ; s.nd from every drive
are turned away a large proportion of younger ones to take their places in time.
There is no " unnatural ratio " of fifty to 100 females to "an old and enfeebled male."
The harems show an average of about seventeen females to a male, and though we may
have to add to these some 75 per cent, more (a circumstance of which Elliot knew
nothing) to allow for the greater number appertaining to the rookery than are ever visible
at once, yet, if we add at the same time the number of bulls at first idle on the rookery,
we shall get a ratio between cows and bulls that compares favourably with Mr. Elliot's
description of the most prosperous period in the history of the herd.
Mortality of Pups.
In this important matter the labours of the past season have added very materially to
our knowledge.
On the 1st August, the date of the opening of Behring Sea to pelagic sealing, a
plump healthy pup was captured and placed in a box in the open air, in order to ascertain
the period of death by starvation. The experiment was a necessarily cruel one, and was
performed with great reluctance, but the importance of the inquiry was held to justify it.
"When captured, the pup weighed 12 Ib; it died on the 15th August, its weight being then
reduced to 9 Ib.
From the very beginning of our .inspection we saw daily, as we watched from the
verge of the rookeries, a dead pup here and there, and now and then one was drawn out
by the aid of a long pole and submitted to dissection. By the 1st August, dead pups were
-conspicuous wherever we went.
Until near the end of the first week in August it was impossible to enter the rookeries,
and no more systematic investigation could be made. On the 5th August a regular pro-
gress was made through the rookeries, and the dead pups were systematically counted
under Dr. Jordan's leadership. The count was completed for St. Paul Island on the
12th August, and on the 16th and 17th August, a similar count was made on the Island
of St. George by Mr. Lucas, Mr. Macoun, and Colonel Murray. The following are the
resulting numbers of dead pups for each rookery on the two islands : —
St. Paul—
Kctavie. .
Lagoon . .
Lukminon
Tolstoi . .
Zapadnie
Little Zapadnie
Zapadtiie reef
Gorbatcii
Ardiguen
Reef . .
Sea-Lion Rock
Polavina
Little Polavina
Vostoclmi (Nortl
Morjovi (North-ea
east Poin
st Point,
west)
ist)
Total
10,309
L'l
St. George —
North . .
l.ittlc Kii-t
dnie
StimiMi Alii
.',1
IU
736
< • : tot;il
'I'his very lar-e :IL-L:I< ualc is ;i(linitto'l t<> consist entirely of pups lor whose death
jiclagic sealing is not to Maine. On St. 1'iiul they were all counted before, mid on
St. George within two days of tin- death ot the pup alluded to, whose enforced period of
starvation i-oinnnMicc'd with the opening of the pelagic fishery.
The existciiee of a large mortality of pups from natural causes has been the snhject
of much Conflict of opinion, l.lliot (O]>. Cit., p. 68) estimates the mortality in infancy,
or up to the age of fi\t or six month*, a- trifling, " >av I per cent., while on and about the
islands of tlu-ir hirth, SUIT ending which, and upon which they have no enemies whatever
to speak til.''
Mr. Ti'\vn<end. in 1895 (Op. Cit., p. :{7), could find no dead pups until after
the 1-t September; from that time: on, the death of the youni; was continuous, and for
1894 (()/>. Ci/., p. 15) Mr. Town-end makes the same statement in almost identical
words.
Mr. True, in 1 cS<) "> (//;/(/., pp. 99, 100), saw a number of dead pups during his sojourn,
but did not think that the total would exceed 150 for all the St. Paul -rookeries. He
counted twenty-three dead pups on the 2nd August on Ketavie, and at the north end of
Tolstoi he oh-erved, on the 15th August, seventy in one small area, and about twenty-five
more a little further south. "The area referred to " [in the neighbourhood of which,
about the same day of the month, we found 1,895] "was occupied earlier in the season by
a ureat ma^ of seals, and I regard the number of dead pups found here as representing
the ordinary mortality of the young."
.1 ud sic Crow ley (Sen. Doc. 137, Part 1, p. 16) speaks of the first dead pup of the
n appearing on the rookery breeding-grounds " in the latter part of August 1894."
Colonel Murray, in hi- Report for 1894 as Special Agent of the United States' Treasury,
(ibid., p. 55) as follows: —
• Another vi iv important feature observed in our inspection of the rookeries in 1894
\\a- the absence of dead pups in the early part of August, for up to our leaving on the 8th
I had no; si rn a drad pup on the island, and the agent in charge, who was on St. Paul
Island from June to the latter part of August, and who kept a close watch for dead pups,
tells me now that it was not till about the 20th August there was a dead pup to be seen,
but from that date to the close of the season, according to official communications received
from the islands, the carcasses of dead pups, starved and emaciated, increased with appalling
rapidity until 12,000 were encountered by the assistant agents."
lint it is not necessaiv to multiply such instances or quotations. It is plain that
recent American observers have almost wholly overlooked the early mortality of pups from
natural causes, and have attributed the whole mortality of the season to pelagic sealinir.
On the other hand, precisely the same phenomen that we witnessed was described in
detail by the British Commissioners (Report, p. HI ) trom their observations in 1891, and
ngain with still greater precision by Mr. .Macoun (Supplementary Report, p. 195) from his
-••rvations in 1 89-.
The Commissioners, "when visiting Tolstoi Rookery on the 29th July, observed, and
called attention to several hundred dead pups, which lay scattered about in a limited area,
on a smooth slope near the northern or inland end of the rookery-ground, a.nd at some
little distance from the shore." No dead pup.- caught their eye on St. George Island, and
comparatively tew on North-east Point, but at Polavina they found several hundred on the
4th August, and on the 19th August at Tolstoi, many more than had been there before.
In short, broadly speaking, they saw what we have seen ; they found the mortality slight
where we found it slight, and great where we found it great.
Mr. Maroun, in 1*92, investigated the matter wish great care. On the 22nd July
he counted, close around his camera at Polavina, HH dead pups. On the ! 4th August he
found about 4,000 at Tolstoi "on the same ground on which those seen la.-t \eur (ls!Uj
were lying, but scattered over a larger area, and in much greater numbers." On North-
• Point, on the 2()th August, he saw. with a ula-s, at least 500 in the view from Hutehinson's
Hill. All this took place in a year when no pelagic sealing was permitted in Behring
Sea.
[313J fi
It is clear that by our work of last summer the statements of the British Commissioners,
and of Mr. Macuuri, are amply corroborated.
Causes of Death.
While this first count on St. Paul Island proceeded, about 150 bodies of pups were
dissected. The dissection was in the greater number of cases performed conjointly by
Mr. Lucas and myself. The examination was a somewhat cursory one ; the bodies were
rapidly opened on some convenient stone on the rookery ground, and the appearances
noted on the spot. Neither Mr. Lucas nor 1 are pathologists, and the symptoms noted
are simply those that would present themselves at once to any anatomist's eye. So far as
they go, however, they are not without interest.
In the first place a very considerable number of pups died during this early period of
starvation. Dr. Jordan (Preliminary Report, p. 47) attributes to this cause the death of
only " perhaps of 200 in all," or less than 2 per cent, of the whole. This is, I think, the
only point of any consequence where I find myself at variance with Dr. Jordan on a matter
of actual fact and observation.
1 take the following five consecutive cases from my notes of dissections made at
North-east Point on the 10th August. The pups were not selected by me, but such as
seemed fresh enough for dissection were laid aside by Dr. Jordan and Mr. Clark as they
passed over the rookery making their count, and I dissected them there and then : —
40. Female pup, thin, no subcutaneous fat. Stomach empty; rectum full of very
black sticky matter ; lungs and viscera apparently normal.
41. Male pup, large, very thin. Muscles pale in colour; lungs deeply congested;
stomach and small intestines empty, the latter stained with much bile ; rectum contained
black slimy matter.
42. Male pup, thin ; stomach empty ; lungs normal ; rectum contains small quantity
of black slimy matter.
43. Female pup, very thin ; lungs deeply congested ; stomach empty.
44. Male pup, very thin; lungs deeply congested; stomach and rectum empty;
intestines suffused with bile.
In every one of these cases il seems to me safe to say that the pup was starved. In
the case of the pup starved for experiment, and dissected by Dr. Voss on the 15th August,
the record of autopsy was as follows : —
" Lungs small, flaccid, deeply congested ; comparatively little blood in heart, and no
clot ; liver small, thin, and very dark ; gall bladder full ; much dark bile secretion in
intestines ; kidneys small and dark ; both branches of uterus congested."
The accumulation of tarry matter in the intestines, black with bile products, or
perhaps with the pigments of extravasated blood, was found by us to be a constant accom-
paniment of starvation, and though our general knowledge of the symptoms of death by
actual starvation is scanty, yet we are not without evidence of a similar phenomenon in the
human subject (c/., Taylor's "Medical Jurisprudence/' edition 3, vol. ii, p. 138).
Suffusions of bile and a distended gall-bladder are still more familiar concomitants of
death by starvation. I have preserved notes of eighty-one autopsies of pups, made mostly
by Mr. Lucas and myself, some by myself alone, others by Dr. Jordan and Dr. Voss ; and
of these eighty-one, nineteen are described as " emaciated and very thin," and six more
as "thin." Nine showed the slimy or tarry black or greenish matter in the rectum,
besides others which showed more or less conspicuous suffusions of bile.
In some of these cases injuries had been received from the immediate effects of which
the pup died; but in all, if starvation did not actually take place, it had at least been
imminent.
In rny opinion, difficult as it may be to account for the fact, the deaths attributable
to starvation, or that occur after a stage of emaciation has been reached, are, even in the
early season, before pelagic sealing can have produced its effect, very much nearer to 12 or
20 per cent, than to the 2 per cent, below which Dr. Jordan estimates them.
Whatever may be the proportion of deaths from starvation in this early part of the
season, the bulk of the pups have undoubtedly met their death by accidental injuries, by
being smothered in the sand, injured by bulls, and sometimes by drowning in the surf.
We could detect no sign whatever of any disease of an epidemic kind.
The following are the percentages of dead pups to the whole number born on the
various rookeries as shown in the August count : —
23
ivie ..
Xapuiliiii' (rrct)
•:.
Little)
I'olii\ inn (Little)
.
North-c;i>t
,.
(ioi-Kitch . .
I'olavinn ..
'..>i
(
1-8
2-7
3-
•1
6'2
7-7
9-5
13 1
16 9
The- iirrat dilYercnc.es here tabulated go hand in hand in a way that is clear on the
whole, it' not i »'t t r.uvable in every single instance, with broad differences in the natuie of
the ground. Tin rockv rookeries show the least mortality; the stony beaches come i
in order; the latx'c rooUeries of the Iteet'anJ North-cast Point stand midway; Polavina,
with its flat, level expanse, stands higher, and Tolstoi and Zapadnie owe their pre-eminence
>ndy inter-pace^ among the rocks, so fatal to the pups that we came to speak of them
as " death-traps." The project of removing these last sources of danger by filling up the
sandy hollows with rocks ; n<l stones has been put forward by the American Commissioners.
The scheme i- a big one, and I am for myself inclined to think that the labour involved
would lie very meai indeeu, and beyond the power of the islanders to accomplish.
After tiie middle of August my journey to the Commander Islands and other
matters occupied my time, and I made no more autopsies. Accordingly, I cannot speak
from personal observation of the cause of death indicated by the bodies of the dead pups
later in the season.
The Mr,rtiiliti/ xub.ifi/nciit to August 15.
The second count of the dead pups was postponed until the end of September, in
order that the pelagic fishery might produce its full effect. This count was made for
St. I'aul Island by Messrs. Macoun and Clark, with the assistance of Judge Crowley,
Colonel Murray, and Mr. Barrett Hamilton, between the 28th September and the 1st
October.
The count on St. George Island \\as made on the 6th October by Mr. Barrett
Hamilton and Mr. James Judge on Kast and Little Kast Rookeries, and by Mr. Macoun
and Mr. Clark on /apadnie, Staraya Atil, and North Rookeries.
The following is the complete result of the October count, the number found in August
being deducted from those found in October, to give the number that had died in the
interval, and an addition of 20 per cent, being made in the case of St. Paul Island to fully
cover the po-sible loss by putrefaction and other causes between August and the
1st October : the addition is a liberal one : —
PUP Statistics. — Summary.
Dead.
Died since
Rookery.
Total Born.
August
Starving.
August.
October.
Count.
ST. PAUL ISLAND.
Ketavie
6,049
109
609
500
42
Lukannon
4,450
205
579
374
27
Lagoon
2,484
78
316
238
51
Tolstoi ...
14,439
1.895
2,449
554
191
Zapadnie
17,648
3,095
4,395
1,300
154
Little Zapadnie .
4,300
134
693
559
64
Zapadnie Reef .
3,862
104
327
223
18
Gorbatch
9,142
712
1,878
1,166
126
Ardiguen
652
2
78
76
8
Reef ...
15,2)8
950
2,786
1,836
300
Sivutch Rock
1,907
50
284
234
31
Polavina
6,673
635
1,555
920
55
Little Poluvina .
1,363
47
119
72
22
•Vostoohni
27,148
1,808
3,313
1,525
329
Morjovi
7,773
485
950
44.5
109
Total ..
123,048
10,309
20,331
10,022
1,527
Addition of 20 per cent, for loss
between August and October counts
• •
• i
2,061
Starving pups to be added as starved.
• .
, .
. .
1,527
. .
Addition for bodies taken for dis-
section
••
••
'-
150
••
Total starved
••
••
13,760
••
ST. GEORGE ISLAND.
North ..
6,809
259
145
. .
7
Stnrnya Artil . . . .
2,269
135
194
. .
3
Zapadnie
5,509
199
527
. .
4
East
4,086
112
15
. .
4
Little East
1,350
31
16
••
1
Totai
20,023
736
897
••
19
Grand total for both islands.
143,071
11,045
21,228
••
1,546
It will be observed that the result for St. George Island is unsatisfactory, inasmuch
as on three of its rookeries far less dead pups were found on the second occasion than the
first. The blue foxes appear to have devoured the carcasses wholesale, and only two
untouched bodies were found on the island. This destruction was most complete on
East and Little East Rookeries, aud just there I had noticed in the end of July the
especial number of foxes, some of which had their earths almost within the bounds of the
rookery. St. George may, therefore, be left out of the calculation, unless we choose
simply to ascribe to it an estimated mortality in proportion to that of St. Paul.
The net result of the count for St. Paul is that, even were we prepared to admit that
no other causes save pelagic sealing were at work after the 15th August to lead to the
death of pups, and even if we reckon all the "starving " pups as starved, and add besides
the estimate of 20 per cent, for loss or defects of observation, we then should have a total
mortality to charge against the pelagic sealer a little more than equal to that which has
already taken place in the early part of the season from causes acknowledged to be
natural and apart from his agency. We may wonder that this mortality is not more,
considering that nearly 30,000 seals (of all ages and both sexes) were taken during the
summer in Behring Sea ; but it is clear we cannot prove more nor any longer allege more.
And such mortality is a very different matter from what has of late years been asserted to
take place.
Dr. Jordan appears to charge in his preliminary Report the whole of this autumnal
mortality, the whole loss of pups after the August count, to starvation, resulting from the
operations of the pelagic sealers. I have no wish to dispute, nor have I any inclination to
To fare page X5
PERCENTAGE OF DEAD PUPS7 AUGUST TO OCTOBER
ON THE SEVERAL ROOKERIES OF ST PAUL ISLAND.
•3
c
•s
N
1 i
a «
> ±
tSJ '•M
I
S
I
I
V
' si
18
IO
W
0
O
REFEREN CES.
2* I if rcokeri&s to Norths aJtds We-st, are, 7-e[jr'e.<iented- by Blue- dote.
•> » n Sout/i.- (ifisJ; EtM-t- it it ii Vlfifk, fJvtsi.
TTie red dvls iiulijcate tJie efirlier mvrtaljty endJsig wMb tiw beginning of August.
doulit, that to the death ot' the mother at sea a large part of this mortality is due, but
that thi.- i> thi' entire and soli- eau-e is surely LmpOWiblB to maintain after our cxperi
of tin- c;.iliir mortality, which sliowed no si-ns of having ceased at ih«- time we
I'stiiiintfd it.
I. r u-, make, for comparison with the similar table previously -iven (p. I'll), a
tal)le of the later mortality on the various rookeries expired in percentage proportion of
the dead pups to the whole number born.
J'l 1:1 r\i \. .1: 1'roportioii of Pups found Dead in the September October Count (after
deduction of the whole number already counted in August) to the whole number
born on the scvcril Rookeries.
Put MB*,
Tolstoi .... 3*8
Little I'olaviii'i
iiif Kfrt
iluii- . .
. .
An!
..
I lock
III!
•
Mna .
6-3
-.•I.
5-7
10 -3
1 1 • (•
12-0
12-3
12-7
12-8
13-3
13-8
The contrast or compari.-on of these two tables is exceedingly interesting to me.
\\ still l.a\c a wide discrepancy between the percentages on the different rookeries where
should certainly be inclined to look for much closer agreement were a general and
distant • 'ich as the catch at sea) the only factor in operation. But the order of
percent: tally different from the preceding one. Differences in the nature of the
mound have n<,w little effect or none at all. Zapadnie and Zapadnie Reef come near
together, as do Ketavic and Lukanncn ; Ardi^nen, Reef, Sea-Lion Hock, and Gorbatch
are nearly identical one with another; Tolstoi, which stood all but at the bead, now
•tends at the bottom. It is curious to note that, with the exception of Little Polavina,
all the rookeries at the bottom of the list are on the north and west of the island, and,
with the exception of Little Zapadnie, all those at the top of the list are rookeries on the
south and east.
1 <!n not propose to explain all the points that an examination of the statistics
Miit. while I believe that there are sufficient discrepancies to indicate the
•ence of other factors in the case, yet it would, in my opinion, be useless to deny that
the figures tend to corroborate the presumption that pelagic sealing is responsible for a
lar^e part of this autumnal mortality.
The L'enorai result of our investigation accordingly is that pelagic sealing, instead of
being the one and only cause of the whole mortality of pups upon the islands, is in fact
responsible for an unknown but considerable fraction oi a fraction which is somewhat over
one-half of the whole.
If, moreover, we require further warning not to ascribe too large a coefficient to
the influence of pelagic sealing on the aggregate mortality, we may find it in a com-
parison of the sta'i-tics for is;).-, and 1896. We have every reason to believe that
the count was made, for the Island of St. Paul at least, as conscientiou>ly in the one
as in the other; the numbers are congruent for the rookerie? severally as well as
collectively. Yet we have evidence of only some !,('•<>() mure dead pups in the former
than in the latter year, against a pelagic eate.i in Mehring Sea greater (r/., United States'
Treasury Dnc., No'. l'.M2, p. 37, 1807) by nearly i:>,000.
In"lMl."> the count of dead pups on the islands was made, once for all, in the day-
immediately preceding the 10th October. The enumeration on St. Paul bland was
evidently systematic and careful, and its results tally very closely with those of 189'i.
On" St. (Jeorire l>land the count is said to have' been made by .Mr. Ziebaeh. the airent
in charge. Mr. / ch reports the finding of M',H]-J dead pup- i where, in ls'.Mi, only
were obtained), | that would indicate a mortality of about one-third of all the pups
born on the island. I can offer no explanation of this stupendous discrepancy.
The following Table sums up the total mortality of pups reported from the two islands
for 1895 and 1896.
1 313]
26
COMPARATIVE Statement of the Total Mortality of Pups in 1895 and 1896.
ST. PAUL ISLAND.
Rookery.
1895.
1896.
Remarks.
Ketuvie
857
609
The figures for 1895
are from
Lukannon . . . . . .
1,347
579
Sen. Doc. 137,
Part II,
Lagoon
300
316
pp. 36 and 37, 54th Cong.,
Polavina
1,970
1,674
1st Sess.
Gorbatch
1,514
1,956
Zapadnie
5,231
5,415
Little Zapadnie
381
Tolstoi
2,582
2,449
Reef
3,376
2,786
Sea-Lion Rock
361
284
North-east Point
4,017
4,263
Total
21,936
20,331
ST. GEORGE ISLAND.
Rookery.
1895.
1896.
Remark*.
Zapadnie . .
North
Staraya Ati!
East
2,083
1,559
1,131
986
527
145
194
15
Little East
253
16
Total
6,012
897
27
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The Driccn.
On the morning of the 1.0th July, i» company with Dr. Jordan, Judge Crow ley
Captain Moser and Lieutenant Garrett of ^ he " Albatross," Dr. Stejneger, Mr. Lucas, and
Mr. Clark, I witnessed the entire conduct of a drive from Reef Rookery. This drive is
minutely and accurately described by Dr. Jordan in his preliminary Report (pp. 38-40).
The points which I especially noted at the time, and which may be here recapitulated in
brief, were the silence, orderliness, and absence of haste with which the whole proceedings
were conducted ; the care taken in sorting out, as the drive progressed, the largest of the
half-bulls included in it ; the much greater ease with which the younger seals travelled over
the ground than their older and heavier brethren ; and, lastly, the ease with which the herd
travelled over the harder and rougher portions of the ground, compared with the labour
involved in crossing a short stretch of sand at Zoltoi. Before traversing the latter,
arduous, though apparently unimportant, part of the journey, the herd was allowed to
rest and cool for 10 minutes. The difference was quite enougii to show that distance in
itself is (within reasonable limits) an unimportant cause of fatigue and hardship compared
with the character of the ground traversed, and, furthermore, that the ground which
seemed to the novice the most arduous was far from being so, for the seals clambered
actively and with ease over great boulders and high angular masses of broken rock, while
they panted with fatigue over a level stretch of sand.
1 could see absolutely nothing to find fault with in the drive. The route is the
most fatiguing now made use of on the islands, but 1 could discover no great hardship,
and certainly no cruelty, involved. The seals certainly puffed and blew, and sweated and
steamed; they stopped every now and then to rest, and panted, as Dr. Jordan says, "like
dogs," but a moment after they went on again briskly. The signs of distress were less
painful than I have often witnessed in a flock of sheep on a hot and dusty road, and
.1 have seen drovers show less jegard for the comfort of their sheep. No seal died or was
injured by the way ; they came to the end of their journey all in good condition, and
when the killing was over, those that were permitted to escape betook themselves
straight and quickly to the sea.
We left the village at 2 A.M., and the drive commenced immediately thereafter at
Zoltoi Sands. The seals driven from there and from the bay opposite were guided by three
men straight to the village killing-ground, where they waited till the drive was over, about
5 o'clock. It was 3 o'clock when \ve reached the end of the reef, and the seals there
were gathered together and started on their way by half-past. About 1,300 seals were
included in the drive and driven in two batches, one of which readied the killing-ground about
5 o'clock, the other about a quarter to 6. On reaching the killing-ground they were first
turned into the shallow lake by its side and afterwards rounded up on the grass ; 1,919
seals in all were driven up to the killing-ground ; of these, 849 were killed, and 1,070
rejected, :i22 as too small, and MS as too large (according to my figures), besides the
small number of still larger ones that were turned away in the course of the drive. The
percentage killed on the ground was, therefore, only 44'3 of those driven up. The
killing was concluded by about 10 o'clock, an interval for breakfast intervening.
A week before, on the 9th July, I had attended, not a whole drive, but the last
portion of one and tbe subsequent killing, at Zapadnie, St. George, and I append my notes
made on the spot.
Leaving the village at 5 A.M., in company with Mr. J. Judge and Colonel Murray,
we arrived on the ground shortly before 7 A.M. AV'e found the pack of bachelor seals that
had been driven on the previous evening from the hauling-grounds gathered together on
rising ground near the watchman's hut. We walked down the hill to another hut, used by
the Company's officers, at a distance of about half-a-mile, or rather more, and were there
met by the Company's agent, Captain Daniel Webster. We had scarcely arrived there
when the seals, driven by a couple of boys, arrived too, having covered the distance with
no sign cf exertion in less time than ourselves.
The killing-gang consisted of nineteen men and lads, three of whom carried wooden
clubs tj feet long. The seals were kept back a couple oi' hundred yards from the shore,
and allowed to come forward in batches or packs to the killing-ground between the main
batch and the sea. Captain Webster, club in hand, pointed out to the men what seals in
each pack were to be slaughtered.
I counted in each batch the seals killed, and those rejected as too young or too old,
as follows : —
n too
1)1,1.
Killed.
• ,1.
28
is
1
20
1 1
7
20
40
:i
55
1-J 11
10
36
•2\ in
17
48
1
13
19
7 I
12
23
16
8
11
35
16
6
•_'l
42
I
13
11
17
6
20
S3
14
4V
265
64
221
.•n
killivl. 10-2.
Tin- work of killing was completed at 8'20 A.M.
Tlu1 iiu'ii employed were clean, skilful, and vigorous. A single blow, or two :it most,
dispatched each seal, and I saw no failure of aim, even in the contused mass of seals
tumbled pell-mell over one another. Though two killing (of 578 and 333 respectively)
had already taken place from this rookery this season, I saw no seal hearing marks of
previous injury. They showed no signs of terror; the survivois of each batch made
quickly for the water, and were already swimming homeward as the next batch were
being slain. Of the nineteen men, two drove down the batches of seals and two did
the work of killing ; two younger lads went round plunging a knife into the heart of any
seal thai still breathed, five (rippers) proceeded to slit the skins down the belly and
around the neck and paws, after which the rest flayed the carcases. The work of skinning
nearly kept pace with that, of killing.
uld not detect in the whole process either intentional or accidental cruelty.
Alter a short rest, we saw the skins placed in the salt-house, the tally taking place
under the eye of the Company's Agent and the Treasury Agent; 233 skins were tallied,
my loin. ei count having been only approximate in the hurry of the killing operations.
Ki-ht skins wen- produced in addition, as those of seals killed in the preceding days
by the watchmen lor food.
AYlu n I w; .tcbed the killing, after the drive already described from the Reef, it seemed
to me that if there was any difference at all between the operations on the two islands,
the men of St. George were perhaps the more skilful of the two. I noted that it seemed
to me that on St. Paul the animal- were hit more on the nose and less on the back of the
head, and that a second or a third blow was more often necessary. But though there
may have been a man here and there less skilful than another, the operation on the whole
\\as performed with very remarkable good order, dexterity, and speed; and, both in respect
to the driving and killing ou the two islands, 1 at least have no recommendations to
suggest for their improvement.
1 afterwards aUendi -d a killing at Polavina, on the 23r<! July. The gang bere COD-
sisted of twenty-six men (five with clubs to kill) and four boys; 585 seals were killer],
and 344 released as \ oung, and :' ..Id. Two young Mftlfl were here accidentally
injured ; of these one was killed a lew minutes afterwards, and the other was found dead in
the afternoon. Work was over by S'4."> A.M. The drive ben- i- a rather lo: th<
killing-ground being fully a mile from the extreme part of the rookery, but the irrnund i-
level and easv ; the drive is lengthened in older to bring the killing-ground near to a small
lake, wheie the seals are cooled off.
I afterwards witnessed the last killings of the season, save for a small number killed
later for food, on the 25th and 27th July. The proceedings call for no further remark
or description.
The drive on the 2,~>th July was a lanse and comprehensive one, seals being hnni
from Lukannon, Ketavie, Zoltc.i Sand* and the Kei-f; on the 27th .Inly the chief drive
was fiotn Trlstoi and Middle Hil!, afterwards from Liikanron. Although Lukannon bad
been driven so recently, there were said to be a remarkable number of good first-class
skins in tb's final drive from that rookery.
'II, i- drive completed the season's catch of 23,842 for St. Paul Island. About sixty
[313] '
killable seals were turned away, and a drive from Zapaclnie that it had been intended to
make was not required. Up to the previous week 5,858 skins had been taken on
St. George Island, when Mr. Crowley arranged that other 300 should be taken, that
being, in Captain Webster's opinion, the utmost that could be done.
1 append a Table showing the proportion of seals killed ana released on the various
rookeries from the date of our arrival.
PERCENTAGE of Seals Killed and Eeleased at the several Drives.
Zapaduie, St. George Island, July 9 (D.W.T.)—
Rejected as too young
265
Rejected as too old . . . . • • • •
64
Killed
221
Percentage . . . . . •
41-8
Reef, July 14(n.W.T.)—
Rejected as too young
522
Rejected as too old
548
Killed
849"
Percentnge
. .
44-3
North-east Point, July 13, 14 (Mr. Adam) —
Rejected young only . . . .
1,159
Killed
2,214
Tolstoi, July 16 (Mr. Adam)—
Rejected as too young . .
1,038
Rejected as too old
279
Killed . . ... . . . . . .
1,138
Percentage .. . . . . •• ••
. .
47-2
North-east Point, west side, July 1\ (Mr. Adam) —
Rejected as too young . . . .
637
Rejected as too old
811
Killed
808
Percentage
. .
35-8
Polavina, July 23 (D.W.T.)—
Rejected as too young
344
Rejected as too old
313
Killed . . , .
585
Percentage . . . . . . . . . .
. ,
47-1
Lukannon, Ketavie, and Reef, July 25 (D.W.T.)—
Rejected as too young . . . . . . . .
1,177
Rejected as too old . . . . . .
1,008
Killed
1,630
Percentage . . . . . . . . . .
. .
42-7
Tolstoi and Middle Hill, July 27-
Rejected as too young . . . . . . . .
137
Rejected as too old . . . . . . . .
457
Killed
450
Percentage . . . . . . . .
. .
43-1
North and Staraya Atil, July 13 (Mr. J. Judge) —
Killed
487
Percentage
• •
46-0
East, July 21 (Mr. Judge)—
Killed . . '. . ,
221
Percentage . . . .
. .
27-0
North and Staraya Atil, July 24 (Mr. Judge)—
Killed
308
Percentage
••
17-0
Mr. Judge further supplied me with the following statistics of the percentage killed at
the earlier drives on St. George Island. In these cases the percentage given is not the
result of a close count, but is merely an approximation.
Date.
Rookery.
Killed.
Percentage
killed.
June 19 ..
East
• • • • » •
576
32
„ 24 ..
Zapatlnio .
• • • • • •
568
76
„ 2fi..
North and
Staraya Atil
999
72
„ 29 .
East
• . . • •
804
62
July 2 ..
Zapadnie .
• . « • .
333
68
„ 6 . .
North and
Staraya Atil
700
56
,. 7 ..
East
•
614
57
8]
Tluse fi_Mire>, tlmii'Ji not nearly >o complete as we mi-lit \\Ni them to lie.
nevcrthele-- exceedingly instructive, and illustrate a lar-c nunil fid truth-..
In the !i -t pi, ice they show that a ,;-tion of in des ..
at CM-IT drive as too old for killing, and that to this extent tin- system i> nut a ruthless
one, hui a lilu.al supply lor br i ding p.. In some cases tin- animal taken
10 liitlr h-ss than its neighbour which is left that the amah i;r can scarcely detect the
difference, 3O inconspicuous i- the incipient "wig" or growth 01 l>.nr ov, r the
withers which deteru.mes the rejection.
In the second place, the falling pen-entases arc a rough measure of the extent to
which the successive drives exhaust, or Ml short of exhausting, the availal)!-.- stock.
In th;s instance tl:c conclusion i.- inevitahle thai tlic drain u|.on the Island of
St. George was this year much more severe than that upon the Island of St. Paul.
>r. — It is untortunatc that no more exact statistics are available as to the
proportion of bachelor seals killed to those released. A careful count of the numbers
released uas rot made until we arrived upon the islands, and the rough estimates furnished
us for some of the earlier driv\ I as a iia-U lor calculation.
It is clear that, if we may .equine that the time intervening between two successive
drives is sufficient to allow of a thorough redistribution of the bachelor herd, and it' the
ea>e he not rendered much more complex by a great diversity in habits, or in the date of
arrival of the bachelors oi different ai,r;:>, then we ou^ht to possess in the fulling percentage
of " killable" bachelors in the successive drives a means of estimating approximately the
total number ol the bachelor herd for each rookery.
My colic, i-ue. Dr. John McCowao, has furnished me with the following solution of
this problem : —
Lit IK be- the ratio of kilicxl to sjmivd in the second drive, and n the like ratio for
thu
r !«• tin' rt'i-ipiMCMl i)f 1 — — .
n
tin- total original innnbfi — r linn-.- the number contained in the
d:ive.
Km- i-xiiuipli-, takini; the killings IVmn North Rookerj- nml Starayn Atil on July 6
and l;i, as being perhnps the lie*t (or the least faulty) instance at hand,
56
July 6 n = -
•H
46
.. 13 m = -
46
54 253
56 378
44
= (n.-arly) 3
Now, on the 6th July were killed 700, being 56 per cent, of the drive.
The drive on the 6th July, therefore, contained 1,^50 seals.
The whole herd on the Oth July, therefore, contained 1,250 x 3 = 3,".".() *, -als.
And 3,750 -(- (.)'J!t ^killed on 20th June) =- 4,7-jO, i> thus iriven us as an approxim I
number of bachelors for the hauling-grounds of these two rookeries at the beginning of
the season.
Estimating either by the count of cows or by the yield on the killing-ground
two rookeries are equivalent to about one-fifteenth of the two islands; and we, therefore,
arrive at a total of somewhat over 70,000 as the number of bachelors (of two years old
and upwards) frequenting the islands at the bcninnini: -if la>t M,,M)M.
The subsequent drive on the 24th July from the same rookeries, at which only
17 per cent, are said to have been killed, is unfortunately not available as a check on the.
82
above calculation. It was the last drive of the season, and was only made to furnish the
balance of the quota.
The estimate is here given merely as an illustration of a method, which, with better
data to work upon, might prove valuable. The percentage given for the 6th July is not
to be relied on. Nevertheless, the result arrived at is probably not a very long way from
the truth.
STATISTICS of Seals Killed on the Pribvloff Islands in the Season 1895-96.
ST. PAUL ISLAND.
Season.
Date.
Rookery.
Seals killed.
1895
Autumn
Food-skins
929
1896
May 13
Sea-Lion Rock . . 121
„ 22
, North-east Point . . 3
,,26
Tolstoi . . . . 102
June 4
, North-east Point . . 3
,,8
Reef .. ..149
„ 13
, "Watchmen to date .. 6
,,19
Zoltoi .. .. .. .. ..
28.1
,,20
Watchmen
2
,,23
North-east Point. .
1,414
,,24
„ .,
1,408
,,27
1 I ' '( I . « • • a* • • ••
2,07 G
,,29
English Bay, Middle Hill, Tolstoi
1,393
July 2
North-east Point. .
1,396
,,3 ..
,, ., . .
1,109
,,6
Zoltoi, Lukannon
1,535
„ 7
Zapadnie
781
,,8
Polavina
961
,,10
Reef, Zoltoi
1,271
, 13
North-east Point ..
1,045
, 14
1*1 }) * * ** **
1,169
, 15
Reef, Zoltoi
849
,16
Tolstoi, Middle Hill, English Bay
1,138
, 21
North-east Point. .
808
,22
1,047
,23
Polavina . . . . . . . .
585
!» *>& • •
Lukannon, Ketavie, Zoltoi, Reef
1,630
„ 27
Middle Hill, Tolstoi, Lukannon
621
Total . . . . . . . .
23,842
ST. GEORGE ISLAND.
Season.
Date.
Rookery.
Seals killed.
1895
Autumn
Food-skins
166
1896
May 18
,, North Rookery .. 15
., 81
» j, „ •• 46
June 11
„ .. 100
161
„ 19
East Rookery . . . .
576
,,24
Zapadnie . . . . . . . .
568
,,26
North and Staraya Atil
99?)
,,29
East . . . . . .
804
July 2
Zapadnie . . . . . . . .
333
,,6
North and Staraya Atil
700
„ t
East s.nd Little East
614
n 9
Znpadnie
221
„ 13
North and Staraya Atil
487
„ 21
East
221
.,24
North and Star.iya Atil
308
Total
6,163
33
TOTAL.
.rl Inland ..
nid . .
1890 06.
•-•;;. si.1
6,163
30,005
1896 to August.
22,913
5,997
.is killed on the islands in 1898 were accepted by the agent* of the North American
iin'ivial r..iu|i-i M -kin> tiikrn for food in the previous mitunm (15th October) on North Rookery,
St. (i M'jeeted, one ;is heiiii; Milder-sized, the
Tlic iilinvi- fiu'urr- were furnished me fur St. Paul Island liv Imlui- Cruwlry. l.'iiitnl State*' Treasury Agent
in eii::rje nf tin- 1'ribylotr N:nid«. and for St. <ir" I by Mr. .Inini-- .Iu<i:;e. I'nited State*' Treasury
Agent
Cour \ i. \ . i vi: Frequency of Drives in past Years on the Pribyloff Islands.
Cf. Sen. Doc. 137, Pt. I, pp. 302-319.)
ST. PAUL ISLAND.
Rookerv.
1878.
1888.
1889.
ST. GEOIIOK |SI.\NI>.
1896.
North-east Point . .
4
33
33
4
Reef, including Zoltoi. .
18
17
18
6
Tolstoi and Middle Hill
9
13
13
3
Luk.'innun and Ketavie
9
6
1'2
3
X.i]i:ulnic
4
1
8
1
Polnvina
3
8
7
2
Rook.'ry.
1878.
1888.
1889.
1896.
North
' 7
16
13
5
Ivi^t
7
14
16
4
Xnpadiiii1 . . . . . . . .
7
10
12
3
St.irnya Atil. .
5
15
13
4
NOTI: — In the aliovo Tab!? all the " foo 1-dr.ves " and all the drives in autumn subsequent to the " stagey "
season aro omitted.
The ti'_':ir.-s -iven for the years 1888-S9 nre not in all loait not in the case of the larger rookeries,
strictly comparable with tho^.> for thi- • tb^ IMORJ H soparato drives drives th.it obviously covered
only a portion of the rookery; the figures for North-K-i-t I'oint in tiiose years should, at any rat», be divided
liy two. Ncvertheli'ss, the rump iri-ou is of some valu ••. an-1 may he checked by an in»;>ection of the full
roin which the above epitome is drawn.
It i? manifest from the above statistics that the rookeries, especially those on St. Paul
Island, were last year subjected to vastly less severe hamilingthan in days gone by, especially
in the latter years of the Alaska Company's tenure.
There was no " rakini; and scraping " required to furnish the quota of 30,000 skins that
>vas last year permitted and obtained. It is equally clear that the 30,000 miicht have
heen considerably exceeded, though it is not safe to make assumptions reiranlin^ the
measure of such possible excess. But we may at least take note that the killing run-- to a
satisfactory end last year without the need for even a second drive at Zapadnie, from which
[3l3J K
no seals were taken after the single drive on the 7th July, at which 784 skins were taken ;
while in 1895 Zapadnie furnished —
Skins.
July 2 ..
,,19 ..
Total
And in 1894—
June 23
July 17 ..
Total
861
834
1,695
Skins.
846
933
1,779
Statistics of Killing on North-east Point.
Captain David Webster had the kindness to communicate to me (5th August, 1896)
his private memoranda of the killing on North-cast Point that he had himself superintended.
Captain Webster has had more experience than any man alive of seals, their quest and
their slaughter. His experiences are in part recorded in the Report of the British
Commission of 1891, and the Commission then bore testimony, which it would be
superfluous for me to repeat, as to his extreme regard for accuracy of statement.
Year.
Date.
Killed.
1868
Finished killing (for want of salt) September 15,
after killing 26,000. Then twice as many
more were killed on the same rookery by
other hands.
In regard to the great and unrestricted slaughter
of this year, it has been alleged that the
slaughter was indiscriminate, and regardless
of sex or age. Captain Webster is positive
in. asserting that bachelor males only were
killed ; that these were so abundant that it
•was unnecessary to disturb the more diffi-
cultly driven breeding-grounds for the bulls
and females ; and that the natives would
have refused even then to kill after being all
their lives accustomed to protect them.
1869
None killed.
1870
Captain Webster absent on Uobben Reef.
1871
Killing completed
October 28 .
18,000
1872
., ,, • • . • • •
July 19 . .
23,444
1873
,3 ,, . . • • • •
23 ..
26,3G9
1874
3, 33 • • • • . •
„ 17 ..
35,775
1875
33 33 • • • • • •
17 ..
35,118
1876
(Absent on Commander Islands.)
1877
Killing completed . . . .
9 ..
25,264
1878
33 33 • . • • • •
10 ..
22,839
1879
33 33 • • . . l •
10 ..
29,245
18SO
33 13 • • • • • •
9 ..
25,799
1831
3 33 •• •• ••
„ 8 ..
18,077
1882
3 33 •• •• ••
17 ..
23,211
1883
3 )) «. .. ..
9 ..
13,361
1884
3 3, •• •• • •
18 ..
23,099
1885
3 33 •• .. ..
23 ..
19,818
1886
3 ,3 • • • • •
24 ..
26,924
1887
3 33 '. »• ••
22 ..
28.5C5
1888
3 ^ -
26 ..
32,863
1889
3 33 . . .. ..
„ 31
28.805
From these statistics two deductions may be fairly drawn.
Firstly that the diversities of dates by which the work was completed and the varying
numbers obtained indicate a variation in the numbers of the stock from year to year even
in very early periods. This fact Captain Webster himself pointed out, and bore witness
from his recollection to its truth. He was positive that even in those early days the seals
were more abundant one year than another, and that the yield was gathered in with varying
decrees (it labour and in varying plenty ; l)ut lie professed himself unable to explain t.lii-s
. Secondly, we may w* irom the ooatiooal laagthmuiu; out o( UM >om 'iiiin^
of tin- iiHTca-ini: difficulty experienced in the la-1 : >tal; and tin- l.i
numbers sir n red to tin- end (tha!. o!' !8t>8 exivedin-.: that of am yi - nay
perhaps be interpreted as showing how this great harvest --round was drawn upon to the
utmo-t in tbe -ir.j — le to aebieve the whole quota of 100,000 for tbe islands during thela«t
years of tbe Alaska Company's tenure.
Conclusion
Besides the tacts m statements that I have dealt with in the preceding pages, there
are still many other points, to which my attention was directed, concerning which I beg
have in the meanwhile to prretermit my report. Such matters as these are the dates of
arrival and departure of the various classes of seals, their manner of feeding and periods
of abstinence from food, their distribution at sea and the duration of their stay ashore,
the diet of tbe pup.- at weaning, the measure of virility of the bulls, and the phenomena of
pregnancy in tbe females.
i tain of these matters are discussed in the Reports of my colleagues; certain of
tbe;n are matter- in regard to which the poverty of our knowledge invites suspension of
judgment and fre-h search for evidence.
In the foie-oing account I have merely set forth my observations of the herd and
its pa-t history in so far as both together show that the alarming statements to which
utterance has been given in recent years, the accounts of the herd's immense decrease and
the prophecies of its approaching extinction, are overdrawn and untenable. But it is my
duty to state to your Lordship that there is still abundant need for care and for prudent
measures of conservation in the interests of all. A birth-rate which we estimate at
H3,000 per annum is not great in comparison with the drain upon the stock. From one
cause or another, a loss of over 20,000 is experienced among the pups ere they emigrate to
sea ; and though tbe dangers they there encounter are unknown to us, we may take it for
certain that tbe risks they run are great and the loss they endure considerable. When to
the measured loss in infancy and to the unmeasured loss in youth and age we add the toll
taken on the islands and the toll taken in the sea, it is not difficult to believe that the
margin of safety is a narrow one, if it be not already in some measure over-stepped. We
may hope for a perpetuation of the present numbers ; ^e cannot count upon an increase.
And it is my earnest hope that a recognition of mutual interests and a regard for the
common advantage may suggest measures of prudence which shall keep the pursuit and
slaughter of the animal within due and definite bounds.
(Signed) D'ARCY W. THOMPSON.
The Man | ness of Salisbury, K.G.,
&c., &c., &c.
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[813]
38
Appendix.
Communication from Messrs. C. M. Lampson as to the market prices of salted fur.
seal skins, 1886-96.
Dear Sir, 64, Queen Street, E.G., London, January 30, 1897.
We are in receipt of your favour of yesterday's date, and in reply beg now to inclose
statement showing the yearly catches of the different kinds of fur-seals sold by public auction
in London since 1886.
You will notice that prices advanced very greatly in 1890, when the take of the Alaskas-
was suddenly reduced to about one-fifth of the usual quantity. Prices generally kept at a
high figure 'during the years 1891-92, and they showed a decline as soon as the largely
increased quantity of the north west coast catch began to tell. Since then there has been
an almost uninterrupted decline in the leading sorts until the present time.
In explaining our classification, we beg to state again that —
Alaskas comprise the male seals taken by the North American Commercial Company
on the Pribyloff Islands ;
Coppers, the males taken by the Russian Seal-skin Company on the Siberian Islands ;
North - west Coast, those taken by the pelagic sealers off the west coast of North
America from San Francisco to the Aleutian Islands, along the coast of Japan, in the
neighbourhood of the Siberian Islands and in the Behring Sea ;
Lobos, the skins taken by a Uruguayan Company on the Lobos Islands, off Monte
Video ;
South Sea, skins taken in the Antarctic Ocean.
Besides the seals enumerated above, about 3,000 skins per annum are taken off Cape
Horn, about 1,000 skins per annum in Australasian waters, and about 2,000 skins per annum
off the Cape of Good Hope, all these being of comparatively little value.
We shall at all times be happy to furnish you with any information that is in our
power to give.
Yours truly,
(Signed) C. M. LAMPSON AND Co.
Professor D'Arcy W. Thompson,
University College, Dundee.
STATEMENT of Gross Average Prices obtained for Salted Pur-seal Skins.
Alaska.
Copper Island. North-west Coast,
&c.
Lobos.
South Sea.
Year.
Number
of
Skins.
Price of
Skin.
Number
of
Skins.
Price of
Skin.
Number
of
Skins.
Price of
Skin.
Number
of
Skins.
Price of
Skin.
Number
of
Skins.
Price of
Skin.
I
». ,/.
.v. <!.
.v. rf.
s. A.
s. d.
1886
99,947 • 69 3 -11,750
40 0 49,079
29 5
15,049
18 1
f m
f t
1887
99,949
50 0
54,584
40 0
39,419
26 0
14,831
16 4
, .
t m
1888
100,037
77 11
46,296
38 4
30,285
34 8
17,774
20 6
. ,
, .
1889
100,031
66 11
47,411
50 6
39,884
42 0
13,205
27 8
. ,
. ,
1890
20,994
146 6
52,765
58 2
47,407
64 4
14,241
35 0
. .
. .
f 53.946
84 9
]
1891
13,494
125 4
4 5,800
58 10
\ 63,733
54 9
13,634
33 C
, .
30,681
68 6
1
1892
7,554
125 1 31.380
81 1 i 72,973
68 7
12,202
26 6
t f
1893
7,500
108 6
32,832
71 10 106,308
51 3
13,624
30 4
45
;;' 4
1S94
15,888
86 0
27,298
57 0 135,686
35 7
12,145
21 1
1895
15,002
81 9
17,721
54 0 102,460
43 10
12,017
20 0
t ,
f m
f
7,500
68 1 T
f 63,696
32 2
14,019
22 6
1
18%
22,500
still
I 14,415
45 2
J 0,900
] still
5,153
still
L 584
51 8
1
unsold
J
unsold
unsold ;J
*•
A table showing, from the above figures, ilu- actu il value of tin- prlajr catch in rciviit
years, makes it evident that tin- fall in price has h«vn iimore serious matter iliau the <liininu-
tion in tin- aitdi.
TOTAL Value of tin- North-west Coa^t (I'.-l.mi,-) Catch.
Yi'ar.
Value.
•. rf. £
<
63,733 skins at
54 9
171
7-',973
68 7
1833
106,368
51 3
-.68
1894
135,686 „
35 7
Jl 1,408
1895
.160 „
43 10
,058
IfM
( 63,696 „
6,900 unsold at
2 = 102,-H4
32 2 = 11,097
li:!,.541
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