MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 381 



EXPERIMENTS IN DOMESTICATION. 



The living pup kept for the purpose of experimeutation in the matter of starvation 

 weighs 12 pounds to-day. It was picked up on Zapadni August 1. 



It is said that pups have been brought up to the village before. They can not be 

 made to eat. Cow's milk, pumped into them with a syringe, was ejected. They would 

 not take anything, and invariably died. As a rule, they never seemed to get tame, 

 and remained just as savage as ever. Messrs. Webster and Morgan are said to have 

 succeeded once in getting one to eat bread, fish, etc. It became tame, and used to go 

 back and forth to the beach, finally becoming a nuisance, crawling into berths at night, 

 etc. It went away at last, and was not seen again. No other was ever known to eat, 

 and this story of "Little Jimmy" may be apocryphal. 



Two 2-year-old fur seals were taken down to San Francisco in 1891 to the Wood- 

 ward Gardens. They refused to eat anything, and escaped once by climbing a wire 

 fence. They were retaken, but died in about six months. They must, of course, have 

 eaten something to have lived so long. To thoroughly test the feasibility of main- 

 taining the fur seal in captivity the pup should be taken when a few hours old. They 

 could then be taught to feed. When older they will not. 



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



The following miscellaneous notes were obtained in interviews with residents on 

 St. Paul: 



Bulls first reach islands, depending on the season, from the 5th to the 10th of 

 May. They sometimes come as late as the 1st of June. The bulk arrive about May 20. 



The cows first come about June 10; rarely earlier. Most come about July 15. 



The first pups are born about June 15. None known to be born on the snow. 

 Some are said to have been born on the ice, but none have been seen by Mr. Redpath. 



The bachelors 2, 3, 4, and 5 year olds come on the hauling grounds by May 15. 

 The yearlings appear later about the middle of July, more or less. Many bachelors, 

 from 2 to 5 years old, stay till the middle of January. 



The bulls leave from and after August 1. Some stay till November, but most of 

 them leave in August. The cows and pups leave together the latter part of November, 

 depending on the condition of the weather. They leave on account of the winter 

 storms, and all go within two or three days. 



The pups are not weaned on the island. They nurse as long as they stay. When 

 pups were killed in November they were always found with milk only in their stomachs. 



The statement that the driveways were lined with carcasses of seals that died on 

 the road was probably true in very early times, before 1870. At this time long drives 

 were common. Sixteen skins is the most ever known to be taken from seals that died 

 on the way. This was on a drive in dry, sultry weather from Tolstoi to Lagoon killing 

 ground. It occurred in the eighties. 



Road skins were taken on one or two drives from the Reef and Tolstoi this year. 

 In these cases the tired animals might have recovered, but were killed to save time. 



The natives do their work now just as they have always done it. Government 

 agents were not required to appear on the killing ground until five or six years ago. 

 They often did so, but were not under obligation to do so. 



