116 



cries, tliongli ten thousand Jirouud all together should bleat at once, 

 Tliey quickly single out their own and attend them. It would be a 

 very unfortunate matter if the mothers could not identify their young- 

 by sound, since their pups get together like a great swarm of bees, 

 spread out upon the ground in 'pods' or groups, while they are young 

 and not very large, but by the middle and end of September until they 

 leave in November they cluster together, sleeping and frolicking by 

 tens of thousands. A mother comes up from the water where sbe has 

 been to wash, and i)erhaps to feed for the last day or two, about wliere 

 she thinks her pup should be, but misses it, and iinds instead a swarm 

 of pups in which it has been incorporated, owing to its great fondness for 

 society. The mother, without at first entering into the crowd of thou- 

 sands, calls out just as a sheep does for her lambs, listens, and out of 

 all the din she — if not at first, at the end of a few trials — recognizes the 

 voice of her offspring and then advances, striking out right and left, 

 and over the crowd toward the position from which it replies; but if the 

 pup at this time happens to be asleep she hears nothing from it, even 

 though it were close by, and in this case the cow, after calling for a 

 time without being answered, curls herself up and takes a nap, or 

 lazily basks, and is most likely more successful when she calls again." 

 Another witness of large experience says: "As already stated, the 

 females now mostly spend their time in the water, returning on shore 

 only to suckle their young as they reqidre food. On landing the 

 mother calls out to her young with a plaintive bleat like that of a sheep 

 calling to her lamb. As she approaches the mass several of the young 

 ones answer and start to meet her, responding to her call as a young- 

 lamb answers its parent. As she meets them she looks at them, touches 

 them with her nose as if smelling them, aud passes hurriedly on until 

 she meets her ow"n, which she at once recognizes. After caressing 

 liiui she lies down and allows him to suck and often falls into a sound 

 sleep very quickly after." 



If the mother seal is killed while out at sea in search of fish for food, 

 her pup, left behind on the islands, and requiring the milk of its mother 

 for eight weeks or more after its birth, will die from starvation. This 

 fact is placed beyond dispute by the evidence, and is not, I think, 

 seriously questioned. 



The pups do not take to swimming naturally. They are enticed or 

 forced by their mother, from time to time, into the water and taught 

 to swim. If a pup, by accident, is born in the sea, it will immediately 



