STARVED PUPS ON MEDNI ISLAND. 451 



PALATA. 



Separating Palata from Zapalata is a huge wall of cliff, at the foot of which, ou 

 the Zapalata side, is a number of parallel or kuife-like reefs which extend well out to 

 sea, bare at low tide, and now black with seals aiid pups, the females almost as dark 

 as the young. The pups find excellent places for swimming between the reefs. A 

 good many are scattered about over the slide which forms the rookery, mostly asleep, 

 while many are crowded on the beach below. 



On the detached north end of Palata 42 dead starved pups were noticed, with 24 

 other dead ones mostly showing emaciation, but more than a week old, so that they 

 can not be investigated. This rookery, like the others, is one on which very few pups 

 would be trampled. 



One fresh pup, not emaciated, at the edge of the sea, has apparently drowned. 

 This is the only pup seen in condition to be examined in which the death was obvi- 

 ously not due to starving. 



AUTOPSIES ON MEDNI ISLAND. 



The following autopsies were made: 



1. Zapadni. Young male pup cast up by waves. Perfectly fresh ; no trace of 

 subcutaneous fat; lungs greatly congested, crepitate; no trace of water in him: heart 

 normal, with some unclotted blood; liver very dark red; spleen purplish; stomach 

 and intestines empty, except the lower part, which contains the dark green tarry 

 matter; gall bladder nearly empty; kidneys deeply congested, the left most so; 

 evidently starved, not drowned. 



2. Zapadni. Female; wholly devoid of subcutaneous fat; vent foul with black 

 tarry matter; lungs deeply congested, not crepitating; intestines pale, empty, except 

 for fluid brown bile; stomach empty, with mucus and bile; kidneys slightly congested, 

 the left most. 



3. Sabatcha Dira. Male ; no subcutaneous fat ; lungs excessively congested, almost 

 black, not crepitating at all; heart normal, with some blood; liver very black; left 

 kidney much congested, the right a little; intestines with tarry bile and slime in lower 

 part only. 



4. Sabatclia Dira. Male; lungs greatly congested, crepitate; no fat; liver dark; 

 black matter in lower intestines as usual, the alimentary canal otherwise empty; 

 kidneys congested, the right most so; heart normal, with some blood. 



These four pups exhibit the same characteristics as the starving pups on St. Paul. 

 Many others in external features corresponding closely to these were seen but were 

 not dissected. 



DRIVEWAYS ON MEDNI. 



On August 25 we traversed the driveways of Zapadui and Palata rookeries. 



ZAPADXI DRIVEWAY. 



The drive from Zapadni goes up from the stony beach between two towers of rocks, 

 climbing the gorge of a little brook which cuts into the bowlders and clay of the 

 hillside, an excessively hard, rough little gully, very difficult for a man to climb, there 

 being small cascades and wet clay in its course. The way is marked by road skeletons. 



After an ascent over ground of this sort for 300 or 400 feet, more or less, the drive 

 goes up through steep grassy slopes, some of them of soft clay, somewhat cut into 



