The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-03-18

brought in more than s50,OOO,Oo0 in the sale of the sealskins taken upon them, and the government has actually re- ceived cash revenues from them amount ine to more than $1o,0O0 900. Moreover, the islands today, as a going concern, are worth about $O,00o,00o, and indications are that they will steadily increase in value for generations to come.
 There are now In the neighborhood of 100000 fur seals on the Pribolofs, or there will be that number next summer, when the animals swim in to take possession of their breeding grounds. Of this num- Der fully 100000 are females, each of which can be relied upon to yield one baby year. Of the babies one-half will be males, whose skins will sometime be sold in the fur markets of the world, add ing to the enormous product we have all ready gotten from the islands Congress has recently made such regulations re- garding the seals that the herds will prob ably increase steadily from now on and these beautiful furs will again become an important factor in the markets of the world.
 But what are the Pribiiofs. and just where do they lie on the map of the world? They are rocky islands, so small that they would not make fly speck on any chart of the Pacific ocean the size of a billiard table. They have an area all told. of less than 50 square miles, and, by and large, they are about the most forbidding places on earth. The is- lands are volcanic In origin; they are composed of alternate stretches of sand and broken rock, which in some cases are backed by cliffs rising to a height four fifths that of the Washington monu- ment.
 The islands are situated in the heart of Boring sea. The nearest land to them Is the Aleutans, which are over 200 miles to the southward, and their distance from the mainland of Alaska Is about as far as from Philadelphia to Boston. They are in one of the gloomiest parts of the ocean. In the winter they are surrounded by icefloes and icebergs, and In the sum- mer are clad in an almost perpetual fog. The sun seldom shines upon them, and 1t is only by means of the compass and chart that ships are able to make their way there.
 The islands are five in number; the most important are St. Paul and St. George, which lie 40 miles apart The others are Otters Island, Walrus Island and Sea Lion Rock. close to the shores of St. Paul. St. Paul is about 13 miles is 12 miles long and four miles wide. The other islands are little more than rocky patches on the face of the sea.
 From time immemorial the Pribolofs have been one of theechief breeding places Of the fur seal, and since their discovery they have supplied most of the sealskins of the world. For many years the fur markets got their sealskins. from differ ent parts of the southern ocean. In the latter part of the eighteenth century, the chief source of supply was the Kergue- len Island, which lies south of the Cape of Good Hope and Australia, and about midway between the two. Within 30 years that island produced more than 1000, 900 skins, and at about the same time 1000 eco more came from little island off the coast of Chile, close to Juan Fernandez, where Robinson Crusoe is supposed to have lived. Other seal islands were the Georgian group, and others those of South Shetland Thirteen hundred thou sand skins were taken from the Geor- gian Islands. and hundreds of thousands came from the South Shetands. Others were taken from an island off the coast of New South Wales.
 All of these great seal rookeries are