96 FISHERY AND FUR INDUSTRIES OF ALASKA IN 1912. 



Early in September Mr. George A. Clark and Mr. M. C. Marsh, 

 with native helpers, branded 1,741 pups, male and female. Others 

 were branded later and the total number for both islands brought 

 up to 5,529. 



The branding was done with a hot iron shaped like the letter T, 

 and applied on the top of the head. The head was selected as the 

 best place for the mark because it is the spot aimed at by the club- 

 ber, and the mark is to warn the clubber to save the animal bearing 

 it. It is the best place for the brand also because the skull offers a 

 firm base on which to work, superior to the yielding surface of the 

 back. 



The 5,529 pups branded this year, while not as large a number as 

 was desired, will form a basis from which much valuable informa- 

 tion may be expected. From those returning in 1913 a certain 

 small number should be killed and careful measurements and weights 

 taken both of the animals and their skins. The exact age of these 

 animals will be known. The measurements and weights will estab- 

 lish a standard for the yearling. In the season of 1914 from the 

 survivals of this body of branded seals a similar number will be 

 killed, weighed, and measured. These animals will be definitely 

 known to be 2-year-old seals, and the data furnished by them will 

 fix the standard for that age ©f seals. Similar killings, weighings, 

 and measurements will be made in 1915 and the standard for 3"-year- 

 olds established. Similarly the standards for other ages will be deter- 

 mined, and from the final survivors the breeding period and age 

 limit can be learned. 



ABSENCE OF DEAD PUPS. 



The subject of natural mortality among the seal pups is discussed 

 at length in the report of the naturalist, and also by Mr. George A. 

 Clark. 



In 1896, 11,000 dead pups were found on the breeding grounds, 

 or 9 per cent of the total birth rate. As these were found early in 

 the season before starvation from the killing of the mother seals by the 

 pelagic sealers could have resulted, it was evident that this was not 

 the cause. An examination of the dead pups also showed that they 

 had not died of starvation, but that they had died from other causes, 

 chiefly as a result of trampling in the overcrowded rookeries. Later 

 in the season, after the effects of pelagic sealing began to show, fuUy 

 16,000 more dead pups were counted whose death was undoubtedly 

 due to starvation. 



In 1912, for the first time in many years, there was no pelagic 

 sealing, and it was, therefore, with much interest that the rookeries 

 were searched late in October for dead pups, with the result that 

 not one starving pup nor one dead of starvation was found. Con- 

 trasting this with the conditions in 1S96 and in other years when 



