EXPERIMENTS IN HERDING SEALS. 419 



first week in September, and to bring back Mr. G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton, a member 

 of the British commission now on the Commander Islands. 



MK. LUCAS'S NOTES. 



1 counted dead pups on north rookery of St. George, finding 259. The eastern 

 part of the rookery is composed of large, angular bowlders, narrow, and as a whole 

 good; no death traps anywhere. 



Eecently dead pups are few, only 1 fresh one secured; 9 were dead on the bluff 

 slope where the harem of 135 was. Emaciated pups are also few here, and there is a 

 greater proportion of plump and well-nourished pups. Among the dead pups was 

 found a prematurely born pup about a foot long and weighing about 3 pounds. One 

 cow seen with broken right foreleg; is so badly injured as to be scarcely able to move 

 over rocks. On the rookery traces (eyes and beaks) of squid were seen which were 

 apparently vomited up by a seal. The condition of these spewiugs indicates how 

 rapidly a cow may return from the feeding ground. 



AUGUST 17. 



In the afternoon Mr. Townsend and Mr. Clark went out to the lagoon to 

 experiment on the feasibility of herding seals there. The native chief, under Mr. 

 Crowley's orders, sent half a dozen men to drive a pod of seals from Lukanin. 



HERDING OF SEALS. 



A boat was rowed up the channel to shut off the outlet. A count of the seals 

 was made as they were turned into the lagoon in small pods at the upper end. The 

 drove numbered 950. 



The seals during the counting showed all the symptoms of fatigue which they 

 manifested after the drive and at the killing grounds, though the drive was made but 

 a short distance from Lukanin to the head of the lagoon over a grassy slope wet with 

 rain. The fatigue seemed only temporary. The animals get tired very quickly and 

 recover as quickly. None were injured. When the seals entered the lagoon they 

 quickly spread over its entire surface, and in a few minutes a large number were 

 trying to cross the rocky ridge at the Tolstoi end of the lagoon. This is the point at 

 which the seals released from the drives at Ice House Lake make their way to the 

 sea. They act as if the way was familiar to them. It is strange that seals from 

 Lukanin should do this, as they are never turned into the lagoon from their regular 

 drives. 



The tide had begun to fall and the seals began to follow the current out of the 

 channel. Many of the seals, of course, showed no disposition to escape, and spread out 

 over the lagoon enjoying themselves, as they usually do before the rookeries. 



One man found no difficulty in guarding the passageway across the Lagoon reef, 

 as the seals necessarily go slowly on land. The seals are said to attempt to get to the 

 sea by way of Tolstoi when held in the lagoon, probably because they can hear the 

 roar of the surf from this direction. 



Mr. Crowley says that 400 or 500 seals turned off from one of the drives last 

 season for some reason did not leave the lagoon, but stayed there three or four weeks 

 swimming about in the water and hauling out occasionally on the sand beach at the 

 upper end. 



