52 



ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



island and on the United States Revenue steamer Corwin, cruising to the west of the 

 islands, continuously until about August 15, and was engaged during all of this 

 time in the study of seal life, either on land or in the waters of Bering Sea, anil have 

 shot seals from a small boat. 



I carefully noted the fact this year that the young seal is at birth r.ttached to a 

 large placenta, equal parts to one-third of its weight and of a bright red color. It 

 is sometimes not expelled until an hour or so after birth, remaining attached in the 

 meanwhile by the umbilical cord to the pup. It frequently remains attached to the 

 pup a day or more. After parturition the female takes an immediate interest in her 

 young, and if it has fallen into some slight rock crevice she gently draws it toward 

 her, taking its nape in her teeth. She repeatedly turns to it with manifestation of 

 affection. 



Prior to July 27, 1892, many of the females had taken to water to feed and could 

 thereafter be seen returning at all times to suckle their young. I quote the follow- 

 ing written memorandum made by nie on St. Paul at that date: "Bulls on rookeries 

 getting exhausted and quiet, mostly sleeping. Cows largely at sea. Some bulls have 

 hauled out on sand beaches that so far have been bare. Four-tifths of the seals on 

 rookeries to-day are pups." 



July 28 I made the following note : "Many females coming from the water bleating 

 for their young." 



I have killed sea lions at the following localities, where they breed in considerable 

 numbers, and found their breeding ground impregnated with the same rank, dis- 

 agreeable smell that is so noticeable a feature of the breeding grounds of the Pribilof 

 fur seal: Light-house Rock, Alaska Peninsula, Farallon Islands, and Monterey Rock, 

 California; San Benito Islands, Lower California, and San Luis Islands, in the Gulf of 

 California. The soil and rocks at these places is as foul with seal excrement as at 

 the Pribilofs, where urine, excrement, decaying placentas, and other tilth rubbed 

 and trodden into the soil and rock depressions cause the odors so characteristic of 

 this vicinity. The rocks at Monterey may be used in illustration : They lie near 

 Cypress Point, 400 or 500 yards off the shore, which the carriage drive follows, and 

 are covered with hair seals, which breed there. They are conspicuously stained 

 with excrement, and where the animals lie thickest the ground is smeared and slip- 

 pery with it. I collected sea lions there in January of the present year, and after 

 my shooting had frightened all the animals off to the sea the rank smell of the place 

 itself drifted acro.ss the channel into the nostrils of the tourists of the Hotel del 

 Monte, who witnessed our operations. It would indeed be an extraordinary occur- 

 rence if fur seals did not deposit excrement upon their breeding grounds in the same 

 way that all other animals of this class do. 



As already stated above, I was attached to the steamer Corwin during the past 

 summer, and I made all the examinations of the stomachs of the seals referred to 

 in Captain Hooper's report, covering, in all, 33 seals. I annex hereto photogra])hs 

 of two of the seals which were dissected and examined by me on the deck of the 

 steamer Corwin. These seals were taken on the 2d day of August, 1892, at a dis- 

 tance of about 175 miles trom the islands. The photogi'aphs exhibit the mammary 

 glands and convey a good idea of the cousiderable size of these glands, which in all 

 cases were tilled with milk. The inference is unavoidable that the i)up is a vora- 

 cious feeder, and this iuference is in keeping with the observations I have made on 

 the rookeries, where I have repeatedly seen pups suckle for half an hour at a time. 

 Tlie mammary gland is very widely spread over the lower surface of the animal ; 

 beginning ))etween the fore ilipy)ers, in fact at the anterior of the sternum, it extends 

 well up under the armpits and back to the pubic bones. The milk glands are quite 

 thick and completely charged with milk. The photographs, especially the iirst one, 

 exhibit the milk streaming from the glands on to the deck. 



Annexed to the report of Captain Hooper is a table giving the results of the exam- 

 ination of 41 seals which were killed in Bering Sea in 1892. It appears that of this 

 number 22 were nursing seals. The photographs hereto annexed show exactly the 

 way all of these nursing female seals looked when cut open on the deck of the Corwin. 



From the fact that among the females thus taken and examined there were found 

 mostly nursing cows, with a small number of virgin cows, it is reasonable to con- 

 clude that there are practically no barren females swimming about in the sea unat- 

 tached to the islands, or that, at any rate, if such seals exist they are rarely, if ever, 

 taken. In all my experience I have never seen anything to lead me to the conclusion 

 that there is such a thing as a barren female. In the case of the virgin cows, a care- 

 ful examination of the uterus proved them to be too immature for conception. 



In the stomachs of many of the seals examined as above stated there were fotind 

 large quantities of fish, mainly codfish. There is nothing surprising in this fact, that 

 codfish should be found in the stomachs of surface feeders such as seals are. While 

 taken at the bottom, the codfish is not restricted to deep water. It is found from the 

 shallows along the shore out to tlie banks where fishermen usually take them. They 

 are often taken at intermediate depths, but fish taken at the bottom are, as a rule 

 larger. 



