110 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



LOSS OF COWS AT SEA. 



It has been ascertained several times the past few years that the 

 loss of cows at sea the first three years is approximately 50 per cent 

 of all of those born. Xo data have come to hand which call for a 

 revision of this result. It is an enormous death toll, and though it 

 is almost certainly due to the Avork of some i)elaj>ic enemy, we know 

 very little of it. Killer Avhales are known to devour the animals and 

 are suspected of being their only enemy, yet proof is not to be had. 

 Br3^ant has recorded the taking of 18 and 24 fur-seal pups, respec- 

 tively, from the stomachs of two killers — $2,000 meals, each of them. 

 The investigation of this matter is one of the important tasks for the 

 future. There are few studies which promise such fruitful residts 

 as would attend the successful solving of this problem. The pro- 

 tection afforded the cows and the consequent increased rate of growth 

 of this class would be the permanent and most important benefit to 

 the species and to man. 



Actual figures as to the number of fur seals killed at sea under 

 the treaty provisions allowing aborigines to hunt them are not yet 

 available to me. Dispatches in the daily press, however, indicate 

 that the}^ are assuming proportions little short of alarming. 



The proportions of the sexes taken in this pelagic catch are not 

 known, l)Ut there is good reason to suppose that it consists largely 

 of females. For the sake of convenience it maj'' be assumed that 

 2,000 females were killed altogether on all coasts. This would 

 reduce the Priljilof herd by double the number, or 4,000 in 1920, 

 because the unborn pup is destroyed with the mother. In other 

 words, the mainstay class of the herd has been reduced in a single 

 season b)^ over 1 per cent. 



This matter is called to attention in the hope that a beginning may 

 be made in solving the difficulty. Rather than have cows slaugh- 

 tered it M'ould be far preferable, if skins the Indians must have, to 

 do as we have with Great Britain and Japan, give them an equiva- 

 lent number of males from the land catch. 



BRANDED ANIMALS. 



Cows bearing the inverted T brand of 1912 on the top of the head 

 were, as usual, in evidence on many of the rookeries. At Lukanin 

 on St. Paul Island one was noted which was not believed to have 

 been many hours out of the water. Two days later she had given 

 birth to her pup but was located in a harem two bulls removed from 

 where she was first seen. She was then seen each day until the. 

 eighth after her arrival. She could not be located later on the 

 rookery, although she must have returned to nurse her pup. This 

 confirms almost exactly a record made by W. I. Lembkey on the 

 same rookery in 1902. 



Further information was gained regarding those branded animals 

 which may be conveniently classed as the 1902 series. A close study 

 of them was begun in 1918 and the subject is dealt Avith at some 

 length in the Alaska report for that year, pages 121 and 122. 



