206 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



allowed so many to get what we call pinky that their value has decreased. 

 The seal from Saint Paul's and Saint George's Islands being- selected 

 young males, are more uniform in color and match better when made 

 into robes, but the fur is not as good as the Cape Flattery seal. I have 

 never been interested to learn where the fur seals of the cape have their 

 pups; but I do know that they are very common and plenty every 

 season, but are of little or no commercial value. I think the fur seals 

 of the cape come from Lower California, and I think they do not go to 

 the Priblotf Islands. There is certainly a difference in the habits of the 

 seals at each place which I should like to have explained." 



Port Townseud, April 25, 1883. Mr. Marsilliot, the second engineer 

 of the United States revenue steamer Wolcott, in an interview in my 

 office this evening, says: "In 1881 the fur seals were very plenty in 

 Puget Sound, and were taken as far inland as Hood's Canal. Some- 

 time during the summer, I think about the middle of June, while the 

 cutter was at anchor in Port Townsend Bay, one of the quartermasters, 

 Mr. Quinn who is now master of the sealing schooner Teazer, saw a 

 little fur-seal pup swimming alongside the vessel. He caught it and 

 brought' it on board where we kept it several weeks. It was about the 

 size of a full-grown kitten when Quinn caught it. We fed it with milk, 

 both fresh and canned, and it became a great pet with the men, who 

 used to let it go overboard every day to swim, and it came back regu- 

 larly to the gang-way ladder to be taken on board. On one occasion 

 the cutter was absent a day, and when we returned to our anchorage 

 the little pup came back and was taken on board again. It was very 

 tame. At last, one day, when the seal was having a swim, the cutter 

 was ordered off, and we were absent a week, on our return the seal was 

 gone and we saw no more of it. The mother had probably been killed 

 at the time the pup came alongside the vessel at first, as there were 

 several fur seals shot in the bay and from the wharves. I have been 

 to the Pribloff Islands and have had some observation of the habits of 

 the fur seals there. I think the fur seals here and at the cape have 

 different habits from the northern seals. I think these seals belong to 

 the herds seen about the Gulf of Tehuautepec and along the Mexican 

 coast. The fact of the pups swimming as soon as born — and even those 

 that have been taken alive from their mothers before they were born, 

 swimming readily — is too well substantiated to admit of doubt. The 

 fact, which Mr. Elliott states so positively, that the pups of the fur seals 

 of the Pribloff Islands will sink like a stone, is an evidence to my mind 

 that these seals differ from those in Bering Sea." 



The foregoing statements show the prevailing opinion of both white 

 ami Indian sealers, and white persons who have lived at Xeah Bay 

 and have had opportunity of frequent observation, that the fur seal of 

 Cape Flattery come from Southern California, and have pups on the 

 ocean and on the kelp beds, a statement which is supported by the 

 testimony of white men and Indians, that they have seen the young fur- 



