During  my  first  year  on  the  islands  the  Alaska  Commercial  Company
was  the  lessee  thereof,  and  during  my  second  year  the  North  American
Commercial  Company.  In  1889 1  made  careful  observations  of  the  rook-
eries on  St.  Paul  Island  and  marked  out  the  areas  covered  by  the  breed-
ing grounds ;  in  1890  I  examined  these  lines  made  by  me  the  former  year
and  found  a  very  great  shrinkage  in  the  spaces  covered  by  breeding
seals.
In  1889  it  was  quite  difficult  for  the  lessees  to  obtain  their  full  quota
of  100,000  skins.  So  difficult  was  it,  in  fact,  that  in  order  to  turn  off  a
sufficient  number  of  4  and  5  year  old  males  from  the  hauling  grounds
for  breeding  purposes  in  the  future  the  lessees  were  compelled  to  take
about  50,000  skins  of  seals  of  1  or  2  years  of  age.  I  at  once  reportep
this  fact  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  advised  the  taking  of  a
less  number  of  skins  the  following  year.  Pursuant  to  such  report  the
Government  fixed  upon  the  number  to  be  taken  at  60,000,  and  further
ordered  that  all  killing  of  seals  on  the  islands  should  stop  after  the  20th
day  of  July.  I  was  further  ordered  that  I  should  notify  the  natives
upon  the  Aleutian  Islands  that  all  killing  of  seals  while  coming  from  or
going  to  the  seal  islands  was  prohibited.  These  rules  and  regulations
went  into  effect  in  1890,  and  pursuant  thereto  I  posted  notices  for  the
natives  at  various  points  along  the  Aleutian  chain,  and  saw  that  the
orders  in  relation  to  the  time  of  killing  and  number  allowed  to  be  killed
were  executed  upon  the  islands.  As  a  result  of  the  enforcement  of  these


14'J  SEAL    LIFK    ON    THE    I'KIl'.LLoF    ISLANDS.
