390 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



A little pup was seen to pick up a piece of bone in its teeth and shake it about as 

 a dog would a chip. It would be as reasonable to infer from this that pups ate 

 bones as to infer that they eat kelp because they play with it. Several pups have 

 been seen to play with the giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrij'era) just as this pup played 

 with the piece of bone. 



DROWNING AND TRAMPLING. 



Having had an opportunity to-day to approach the rookery closer than ever before, 

 the causes of loss of life among the pups seem clearer. Mr. Lucas feels that his opinion, 

 formed at St. George, that ordinarily few pups are drowned, must be modified. 

 Drowning depends upon the topography of the rookery, which also determines the 

 death rate in general. Flat surfaces of rock or sand, but particularly sand, allow 

 the pups to be trampled on by bulls; pups are either suffocated or crushed. Sloping 

 beaches of bowlders, if angular, permit pups to recede and hide; rounded bowlders 

 are worse than angular ones, and when the shore is steep and the surf strikes it 

 obliquely as at Tolstoi, a certain number of pups are drowned. The safest rookery is 

 that where the harems are located in volcanic shelves strewn with angular bowlders. 

 Sandy places are death traps for pups. However, the number of healthy, well-fed 

 pups drowned at this stage is small. Part of those drowned have become weakened 

 by starvation, and in these cases, as in cases of certain crushing, drowning is only a 

 secondary cause. 1 



AUGUST 8. 



Dr. Jordan, Mr. Clark, and Mr. Macoun counted dead pups on Kitovi and Lukanin 

 rookeries in the forenoon and Keef rookery in the afternoon. Mr. Lucas and Professor 

 Thompson dissected those fresh enough for examination. In the evening the Rush 

 called, bringing Mr. Townsend from Uualaska. Mr. Lucas immediately went on board 

 for a cruise among the pelagic sealers. 



THE COUNT OF DEAD PUPS. 



A beginning was made on Kitovi rookery toward a more thorough investigation 

 of the dead-pup question. The rookery was entered and all the seals driven off, Mr. 

 Macoun and Dr. Jordan making the count of dead bodies together, verifying as they 

 went along, so that in almost every case both saw the pups counted. Probably not 

 half a dozen were overlooked on the whole rookery. 2 All the pups that were sufficiently 

 fresh to make examination possible were dissected by Professor Thompson and Mr. 

 Lucas. Probably all that had died within ten days were so examined. The great 

 majority of the dead pups died early, most of them having the umbilical cord attached. 



1 The pnps here found dead from drowniiig on Tolstoi were doubtless sick pups which had gone 

 down on the rocks of the heach and while unable, from weakness, to get away were overtaken by the 

 surf. They were noted to be in poor condition. The mortality here ascribed to trampling, it must 

 be repeated, was at the bottom in reality due to a wholly different cause, though trampling in the 

 majority of cases was actually the immediate cause. The weak and ana-mic pup suffering from 

 Uncinaria was stepped upon because it had not strength to get out of the way. 



2 The experience of 1897 in picking up and actually removing the dead carcasses on Kitovi 

 rookery, after a more careful count, showed that many had been overlooked. While these counts of 

 1896 therefore seemed at the time to be accurate they were probably all below the actual facts. 



