GORBATCH AND REEF ROOKERIES. 351 



or silvery colors are those of tlie young females. In a liareai of a dozen cows here 

 on Gorbatch about half the number are these light-colored cows, probably 3 year-olds. 

 The pups have all been born some time, and are as big as any seen on the rookeries. 

 Two other cows in this same harem are wet. They are looking for their pups. One 

 cow is uniformly dark in color. The other shows distinctly her light silvery color. 

 There can be no question that these cows, when dry, will one be brown and the other 

 silvery. Again, these light cows have been seen to enter the water and have been 

 watched as they swam about, their white bellies and throats being noticeable as they 

 whirled in the water. In the case of the browii cows, just as soon as they are dipped 

 they show dark all over. 



GORBATCH. 



Beyond the harem just referred to on Gorbatch, near Zoltoi, a dead cow was seen 

 under the cliff apparently wedged betweon two stones. With considerable difficulty 

 and after a lively tight with the neighboring bulls the body of the cow was reached. 

 It did not seem likely that she had been crushed. It was, however, with difficulty 

 that she was withdrawn from the crevice, and it may be that the heavy surf of the 

 past few days has shifted the rocks and wedged her in. As she was dragged along 

 the blood oozed out of her nose. Her skin on a superficial examination did not 

 disclose any shot marks, though the bleeding would seem to indicate some internal 

 wound. Between the shoulders on her back was a scar, quite fresh, where the skin 

 had been cut out in a round patch about the size of a silver dollar. There did not 

 seem to be any wound beneath, but as the cow had been dragged some distance -by 

 the skin of the neck the wound might not have shown. She had not been long dead. 

 The body seemed very plump if not swollen, indicating that perhaps it contained an 

 unborn pup. The nipples were moderately swollen and the vagina somewhat dilated. 

 The details of her condition will be given later after dissection. 



REEF. 



Five dead pups were counted on the hauling ground of the Reef rookery, or 

 rather in the runway between the masses of harems through which the bachelors pass 

 in going up to the hauling ground. They did not show evidence of starving, and 

 were probably trampled to death by the half bulls and the idle bulls of which the 

 passageway is always full. Their bodies were flattened out. 



The holostiaki, of which there are a great number on the hauling ground back of 

 the Reef, are very playful, pulling one another around like dogs at play. Their 

 actions resemble those of the pups in the pods about the harems, but they seem more 

 playful and less in earnest than the pups. The pups play as though they were angry. 



One old bull, a magnificent fellow, is badly injured in the back. He drags his 

 hind flippers in a perfectly helpless manner. He is, however, very strong in his 

 foreparts, and maintains himself against the half bulls and idle bulls that attack him 

 while trying to get out of their reach. 



Another old fellow with one of his fore flippers badly swollen was seen on the 

 top of the slope of Gorbatch in a pod of bachelors. He carried his flipper in the air 

 as a dog might a sore paw, getting along quite briskly on three flippers. 



