THE FUR SEAL ISLANDS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 123, 23 May 1873, Page 4

THE FUR SEAL ISLANDS.

(United States Economist.) One hundred and eighty miles north oi the Aleutian Peninsula, and 300 West of Alaska, are •_ two small* islands known as ; the seal* islands . (or 7 more specifically Pribyloff Islands), .cW inch were discovered and settled by the Russians some eighty V years ago. The largest onl;* 8t Paul, haa about fifty miles of shore line, St George's probably having twenty or twenty-five. To. these islands comeevery year, in the summer time, an extraordinary number of \ fur 'seals, for the purpose of breeding; 'F^ipime i four or five, millions at least were, at 77^he , jtime7- r .'of writing, hauled up on tbe rocky shores. The old males come first, p,.g^ismylowo ''months earlier than the i^lmales^'They take up positions on and } l&mpv^Hhe rocks above the tide level, and .7 wait patiently for the arrival of their in thisinstinctive ..^jpetufltive labor.. When -they .first from "* "the, sea and vlie upi<Jn the .sh&^e, they -.are -■ exceedingly fat •SM^s}|^ and Jt is well * that they- are sQjffs^fe^ij^this fatness > alojae they live fo£ 4h v pee, four, andreven Jfi^e months, without iakijqg .food sb& any x leaving. v their stand on > v |^tl^^P^K"T.his. existence is not passed in 7 condition by any means — *of the. most incessant and ■7 vi^Mf^ exercise, fighting furiously among f? themselves for their positions on the rookery, so desperately as to frequently . kill; oue another^ and in attending the females during the . breeding season.

They ounger males aro not permitted by the older ones to iake a stand on the breeding ground, or rookery, they are obliged to haul up in large droves by themselves, either to one side, or far in rear of the ground occupied, by their seniors. It is from these flocks or herds of young bachelors that the collection of killable seals is made, and the " drive" "taken. Females, are never slaughtered for their Bkins. The females begin to land about tbe middle of June in large numbers, and very soon after having found their places on the rookery, give birth to their young, and stay by them till the ,end of September — before leaving the ground only going now and then into the water to wash and cool themselves. The females have but one pup a year, though they may, like some other animals, have occasionally twins ; but Captain Bryant, who has watched them for three years, has never observed a case. Their bodies, so well enveloped in fat, are admirably adapted lo the rough, sharp-edged rocks, on which they lie month after month in apparent ease and comfort. The Government, after careful deliberation over the consideration of mauy propositions, haa leased to the Alaska Commercial Company the islands for a (erm of twenty years, giving the company the exclusive right to take sealskins, limiting it at the same time to securing a certain number per aunum, 100,000. For this privilege the Government receives the very handsome revenue of 340,000d015. yearly, with scarcely any cost of collection more than the pay of one agent and three assistants, who are stationed on the two islands to see that all the conditions of the lease are faithfully carried out. By putting this limitation on the number of seals to be killed every season, and restricting the destruction to the males only, the increase and perpetuation of these valuable animals is ensured. Were this not done the seals would soon be exterminated, as have already been their cousins in. the Antarctic.