PRIBILOF ISLANDS (often called the Fur Seal islands), a group of four islands, part of Alaska, lying in Bering sea in 56° 50' N. and 170° W., about i8o m. north of Unalaska and 200 M. S.W. of Cape Newenham, the nearest point on the mainland. The principal islands are St. Paul (about 35 sq.m. ; 13 m. long, from north-east to south-west ; maximum width about six miles; named from St. Peter and St. Paul's day, on which it was discov ered) and St. George (about 27 sq.m. ; io m. long, maximum width, 4 m. ; probably named after Pribilof's ship) about 3o m. south-east. The native population in 1923 was 337-204 on St. Paul and 133 on St. George. The white population, who act as supervisors, numbered 14. Only agents of the United States or Aleut natives are permitted as residents on the islands. The natives are employed in the sealing industry during the hunting season but in reality they are chiefly dependent on the U.S. Government for food, clothes, schools and medical attention. They maintain their own church on each island (the Russian Greek Church).
The islands are hilly and of volcanic origin, without harbours, and have a mean annual temperature of about 35-7° F, and a rainfall of about 35 inches. There are only two seasons—rainy summers lasting from May to October, and dry winters from November to April. The flora is restricted to ferns, mosses and grasses, though there are a number of creeping willows and small shrubs.
Fur Industry.—The seals which visit the Pribilof islands from April until November are a distinct species (Callorhinus ursinus) with much better fur than that of any other. The sealing opera
tions during the year 1926 resulted in a take of 22,131 skins, of which 16,231 skins were secured on St. Paul and 5,900 on St. George. A census, taken after the completion of commercial kill ing operations, showed the herd to number 761,281, an increase of 38,231 over the preceding year, or an increase of 208,563 over the census of 1920. Seal skins (21,370) to the value of $749,734 were sold during the fiscal year 1926. Besides the fur seal there are blue and white foxes (more on St. George than on St. Paul). The total number of fox skins taken in the fiscal year 1926-27 was 728 blue and 3o white. On St. George island and the two islets there are great bird rookeries, which are the breeding places of immense numbers of gulls, sea-parrots, auks and cor morants.
The islands were first sighted in 1767 by Joan Synd, and were visited in 1786 by Gerasim Pribilof, who discovered the fur seal rookeries for which they became famous. From Russia the islands passed with Alaska to the United States in 1867. From 1870 to 1890 the U.S. Government leased the islands to the Alaska. Commercial Company. In 1890-1910 the North American Com mercial Company held the monopoly, but in the meantime the industry shrank considerably owing to pelagic sealing. The islands were taken over by the U.S. bureau of fisheries in 1910 and since that time sealing operations have been administered directly by its representatives.