2G0 XATCTRAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



The Bearded Seal is rather common along the xUaskau coast of Bering Sea south to Bristol 

 Bay, but it is not found on the Aleutian Islands nor about the Par Seal group, except possibly as a 

 ■winter visitor with the pack-ice about the latter islands. On the coast south of Cape Vancouver 

 they are far less common than north of that point. 



Wagner's record of this animal from Sitka, as quoted by Allen (N. A. Pinnipeds, p. G69), is 

 certainly erroneous, as this species is unknown from the American shore of the North Pacific. 

 This record probably arose through a misunderstanding. 



Sitka was formerly a central distributing point of supplies for the Territory, and then, as now, 

 the Bearded Seal skins from Bering Sea were au article of commerce prized by the natives of the 

 coast and islands, so that the presence of a skin at Sitka does not necessarily imply that it was 

 captured there. This species is particularly fond of the icepack, and the warm water of the 

 Pacific about Sitka would not be vei-y attractive to an animal which winters in the Arctic pack. 

 From Cape Vancouver north through Bering Straits and along the coast to Point Barrow, they 

 arefouud rather common]y,but always less numerous than the Harbor Seal. Like the latter species 

 they are valuable to the Eskimo, to whom their flesh and oil furnish food. Their skins are the 

 naost highly prized kind for covering the kyak and umiak and for boot-soles, and when cut into 

 strips make a very strong and durable cord. 



They keep offshore and about the outlying islands and outer reefs more thau does the Harbor 

 Seal. In autumn, however, they come into bays and along shore, so that in September and October 

 many of them are taken in nets set off the points. During March, April, and May they are hunted 

 along the seaward edge of the shoreice before it breaks up, and also among the moving pack-ice. 

 At this latter season they haul up on the ice and are shot, or are shot or speared in the tide- 

 cracks or among the loose ice. When killed in the water at this season they do not sink, owing 

 to the thickness of their blubber. 



Their food consists mainly of fishes, judging from the stomaclis of those I saw at Saint 

 Michaels; from the stomachs I obtained some small deep-water fishes almost intact. 



The young are born from the end of March to the first of May. They appear disproportion- 

 ately large when first born, and will weigh in the neighborhood of 100 pounds. One young 

 Bearded Seal which I saw brought in by au Eskimo, who claimed to have removed it from 

 the mother, had the body entirely covered with the stiff steel-gray hairs, such as they have after 

 being born, and no signs of the woolly coat, such as the newly-born Harbor Seal exhibits, were to 

 .be seen. 



These animals move about with the pack-ice to a great extent, but they do not appear to have 

 any flefiued migratory movement, as they are found in Bering Sea all summer, although the pack- 

 ice usually disappears there in June, and Murdoch found them wintering in the vicinity of Point 

 Barrow when the ice was broken enough to permit, so they may be classed as resident wherever 

 found on the Alaskan shore. They are in no way gregarious, l)at sometimes two or thi'ee will be 

 found in company. 



The young are dark silvery gray, becoming lighter on the lower surface, and au ajjpearance 

 of indistinct mottling is often found. The muzzle of both young and old is of a peculiar reddish 

 color, which is more marked in the adults and sometimes extends back to the eyes. The adults 

 are nearly uniform in color, being only a little paler below, and without spots or mottling in all 

 the specimens seen by me. The usual color is a silvery yellowish or very light grayish color, and 

 almost yellowish white in many instances. The sexes are alike, except that the female is smaller 

 than the male. 



The flesh of this species is excellent eating when freshly killed, and the blubber is tasteless 

 and much like very fat pork. If kept a few days, however, the flesh and blubber become rank- 

 and repulsive to any but au educated taste. 



During the summer of 1881 we found this species at Saint Lawrence and the Bering Straits 

 Islands and upon the Siberian Arctic coast west to North Cape, but they were not seen near 

 Wrangel or Herald Islands, although they undoubtedly occur there. 



On the Siberian coast of Bering Sea we found them from the Straits to Plover Bay, and they 

 have been taken south to the mouth of the Amoor River on that coast. 



