APPENDIX. 495 



Charles Bryant, 1875: Page 65. 



This aaccount of the return of the females, and the period between 

 delivery and service by the bull is essentially correct. But while a 

 certain number of cows are caught on landing and appropriated by the 

 bulls, the great mass of them slip in quietly and take their places in 

 the harems of their choice. The pup is born from a few hours to three 

 days after landing, and the cow takes the bull in about five or six days 

 more. About the 1st of August the adult bulls leave the rookeries to 

 feed, but many of them return again to spend the rest of the season 

 among the cows and pups in their old places. The copulation at sea 

 here referred to by Mr. Bryant does not occur. He has probably mis- 

 taken the playing of the seals in the water for the act of copulation. 



Charles Bryant, 1875: Page 66. 



In making the statement that the " method of killing does not admit 

 of setting apart * * * the requisite number for breeding pur- 

 poses," Captain Bryant overlooks the fact that there were inaccessible 

 hauling grounds, as Otter Island, Sivutch Rock, Lagoon, Zapadni 

 Head, etc., from which the seals could not be driven, and which were 

 doubtless then, as now, nearly adequate to supply the necessary incre- 

 ment of breeding bulls. The feeling here and elsewhere freely expressed 

 by Captain Bryant of danger in land killing seems not to have been 

 justified by the history of subsequent years. 



Charles Bryant, 1875 : Page 67. 



Whatever may have been the grounds on which Captain Bryant 

 based his belief in the inadequacy of the sujDply of breeding bulls, the 

 subsequent history of the herd did not confirm it. Had there been the 

 scarcity of male life here noted, it must have eventually showed itself 

 in a diminution of killable seals, which did not occur within ten years 

 at least. The reduction of the quota he contemplated could not have 

 affected the herd within five years, as it would require this period for 

 the young males to mature. At the same time. Captain Bryant notes 

 an increase in the killable seals on St. George's Island, and recommends 

 an iucrease of the quota by one- third (seep. 87; see also Falconer's 

 report, 1876, p. 88). 



On page 42 Captain Bryant says, in 1873, that after taking the quota 

 of 100,000 skins " there is still a surplus of males required for breeding 

 purposes." He had also himself recommended the increase of the quota 

 for 1874 from 100,000 to 130,000. In view of these and other contradic- 

 tious of a similar sort we must conclude that Captain Bryant's fears were 

 unfounded. 



Charles Bryant, 1876: Page 91. 



Here Captain Bryant gives the proportion of breeding males as 1 to 

 17, whereas, in his opinion, it should be 1 to 10. As we know, the per- 

 centage of males to females on the breeding grounds averages 1 to 30 

 to-day, and this i)rop®rtion is not a matter of necessity but of natural 

 adjustment. For every bull controlling a harem to-day there is an 

 equally capable bull which can not get any cows. 



On the following page (92) we find that notwithstanding the fact that 

 the necessity for a decrease in the quota to 80,000 is urged, at the same 

 time it is asserted that among " the young males between the ages of 

 2 and 5 there is quite a visible increase." He also notes through aU 



