234 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



here, tlie spared seals {^^ zapooslde^^) were not more than 3 years old, 

 and therefore it was not possible to discern the correct and true num- 

 bers as they really were. Taking the females killed by the people, 

 together with all the seals which were purposely spared, it was seen 

 that the seal mothers did not begin to bear earlier than the fifth year 

 of their lives. Illustrative of this is the following: 



(a) On the island of St. George, after the first "zapooka," in 1828, 

 the killing of 5year-old seals was continued gradually up to five times 

 as many as at first. With those of 5 years old the killing stopped. 

 Then next year twelve times as many 6-year-olds were observed on the 

 islands, as compared with their number of the last year, and with or in 

 the seventh year came seven times as many. This shows that females 

 born in 1828 did not begin to bear young until their fifth year, and 

 become with young accordingly; that the large ones did not appear or 

 come in six years (from 1828), as is evident, for in the fifth year all the 

 females did not bring forth. ^ , . „ 



(ft) It is known that the male seals can not become "seecatchies" 

 (adult bulls) earlier than their fifth or sixth year. Following this, it 

 may be said that the female bears earlier than the fourth year. 



ic) If the male seal can not become a bull (" seecatchie") earlier than 

 the fifth year, then, as Buffon remarks, "animals can live seven times 

 the length of the period required for their maturity," therefore a "see- 

 catch" can not live less than thirty years, and a female not less than 

 twenty-eight,^ 



Veniaminov's belief that females can not bear YOUNa 

 UNTIL FOUR YEARS OLD.— Taking the opinion of Buffon for ground in 

 saving that animals do not come to their full maturity until one seventh 

 of their lives has passed, it goes also to prove that the temale seal can 

 not bear young before her fourth year. , . ^ a 



It is, without doubt, a fact that female seals do not begin to bear 

 young before their fifth year, i. e., the next four years after the one ot 

 their birth, and not in the third or fourth year. That, however, is not 

 the rule, but the exception. To make it more apparent that females 

 can not bear young in their third year, consider 2-year-old females, an^ 

 compare them with "seecatchie" (adult bulls) and cows (adult females), 

 and it will be evident to all that this is impossible. 



Do the females bear young every year; and how often in their lives 

 do they bring forth? . 



His doubts on the subject.— To settle this question is very diffi- 

 cult, for it is impossible to make any observations upon their move- 

 ments; but I think that the females, in their younger years (or P^we,) 

 bring forth every year, and as they get older, every other year, ihus, 

 according to people accustomed to them, they may each bring forth in 

 their whole lives from 10 to 15 young, and even more. This opinion is 

 founded on the fact that never (except in one year, 1832) have an 

 excessive number of females been seen without young; that cows not 

 pregnant hardly ever come to the Pribilof Islands; that such females 

 can not be seen every year. As to how large a number of females do 



iThis remark is sustained by the observation of old men, and especially by one 

 of the best Creoles, Shiesneekov, Avho was on the island of St Paul in 1817 and who 

 knows of one "seecatch" (known by a bald head), which in that time had already 

 a larle herd of cows or females, surrounded and hunted by a lik«"un.ber of females 

 and stron-, savage old bulls; therefore, it may be safely thought that this bull did 

 not get hi" growth until his fifth year, and at this time he could not have l^een less 

 than 10 vears old. And this same bull came every year to the island and the same 

 place for fifteen years in succession, up to 1S32, and it was only m the later yeaia 

 that his harem grew smaller and smaller lu number. 



