114 



By anotlier act of Congress, ai)proved Marcli 2, 1889, it was iirovided 

 that section lOaGot'tlie lievised Statutes, prohibiting the kilHngof any 

 otter, mink, nmrten, sable or seal, or other I'lir-bearing- animal, within the 

 limits of Alaska Territory or in the waters thereof was declared to include 

 and apply to all the dominion of the United States in the waters ot 

 Bering Sea; and it was made the duty of the President, at a. timely 

 season in each year, to issue his iiroclamatiou and cause the same to be 

 published at each United States port of entry oh the Pacific coast, 

 warning all persons against entering those waters for the purpose of 

 violating the provisions of that section. 



4. The Pribilof herd is found, en masse, every year on the islands of 

 St, Paul and St. George. They remain there about four or five months. 

 Much longer time intervenes between the first arrival of some, and the 

 departure from the islands of those who last leave them for the season. 

 The xieriod duiing which the herd abides on those islands, is called 

 the breeding season. They return there regularly for the pur^^ose of 

 breeding and rearing their young, and of shedding and renewing their 

 coats of fur. 



5. The breeding males, called bulls, arrive in the early i)art of May 

 or by the middle of that month. Each bull, immediately after coming 

 from the sea, establishes himself upon the rocky beach, appropriating 

 as much space as will be needed for his female companions after they 

 arrive. The non-breeding males, or baclielors, arrive during tlie same 

 month, and take i^osition, substantially in a body, and, as a general 

 rule, in the rear of the spaces occupied by tlie bulls. Sometimes tlie 

 bachelors occupy spaces near the water, but separate from those 

 occupied by tlie bulls and their female companions. Early in June the 

 female seals, called cows, begin to emerge in bodies or droves from the 

 sea, and to enter the spaces iirovided for them by the bulls. By the 

 10th of July substantially the entire herd is established on the islands. 

 Each bull appropriates for the season at least fifteen or twenty female 

 seals. 



Within a few hours, it may be, always within a few days, after reach- 

 ing the islands, the mother seal, in)pregnated during the breeding 

 season of the previous year, gives birth to a single pup, the period 

 of gestation being eleven or twelve nu)nths, the pups born being 

 about equally divided between the sexes. The pups are conceived on 

 the islands during the breeding season. Cohabitation, for any effective 

 purpose, in the water, is impossible. The females appear to have an 



