396 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



been for some time. There are 31 bulls, not more than halt' seemingly old timers, on 

 the whole of Ardiguen. There are 189' cows present, and 434 pups. This count, how- 

 ever, is not likely to be final, as it was made from the top of the bank, and there may 

 be a large number of pups and a few cows hidden. 



Ardigueu presents extremely favorable conditions for pups, there being apparently 

 only 2 dead pups in the entire region. No bachelors run down in this slide, which is 

 well provided with angular rocks. There is no hauling ground at Ardiguen, its 

 bachelors going around on the parade ground of the Keef. 



Three young bulls are still waiting patiently behind. Many of the cows in the 

 harems are young females. 



ROOKERY MANAGEMENT. 



It would not do to give Treasury agents general authority to shoot idle or 

 superfluous bulls, though many of these should be disposed of. Such action would not 

 be safe except under skilled direction and after a thorough study of the needs of the 

 herd. Such work should follow the appointment of a superintendent of the herd and 

 be under his control. 



Such a superintendent might donmch in the way of caring for the rookeries, clearing 

 out the bowlders from the runways of the bachelors, forming these into low stone 

 walls between the runways and the harems and even at the back. These walls should 

 not be too artificial in their make-up. They need not be high, only inconvenient to 

 cross. This would allow of egress and ingress, but by rendering both difficult the 

 animals would not wander across them in an aimless manner. They might serve as a 

 means of preventing the straying of pups, which are often found half starved or dead 

 in the hauling grounds, where they have wandered away with the bachelors and 

 become lost from their mothers. 



Stones might be rolled down from the slopes above certain places, as at Tolstoi 

 and the Keef, to cover bare, sandy tracts, which are now definitely known to form 

 death traps. These places furnish unimpeded opportunity for the movements of the 

 bulls, and the luckless pups wandering about over them are trodden upon. Where 

 the ground is full of bowlders the bull can not move so easily and the pup can crawl 

 under the edges of the stones and find protection. With some expense many of the 

 bad places could thus be fixed. Rock can be found within a reasonable distance of 

 any of the defective breeding grounds. 



There are pools in some of the harems that become filled with rain water, and the 

 excrement of the animals mingling with it produces a fearful stench and filth. These 

 should be filled up with sand and strewn with rocks or else drained. Even in the 

 rocky areas are pools above high tide which become filled with rain water and likewise 

 filthy. Openings might be drilled into these so they might drain oft'. It may not 

 make any difference to the seal as it is, but while a hog might not object to a filthy 

 pen, the breeder who lets him live in one is not thought well of. 



On some of the exposed rookeries it might be possible to so pile up the rocks on 

 the water line as to make a protected pool, replenished by the sea, in which the pups 

 might learn to swim guarded from the force of the waves. At the angle of Tolstoi 



1 The total number of cows in July was 550. The count of cows is reasonably accurate, but a 

 count of pups is impossible from the bank, and is difficult from below, as they lie under the bowlders 

 out of sight. 



