ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 267 



assertion that a liarp seal's favorite way in swimming is to lie iii^on its 

 back when so doing. It is simply an odd contradiction to the method 

 employed by tlie hair seals of the IS^orth Pacific and of Bering Sea. 



While I am nnable to prove that the fur seal possesses the power to 

 swim to a very great depth, by actual tests instituted, yet I am free to 

 say that it certainly can dive to the uttermost depths, where its food- 

 fish are known to live in the ocean; it surely gives full and ample evi- 

 dence of possessing the muscular power for that enterprise. In this 

 connection, it is interesting to cite the testimony of Mr. F. Borthen, the 

 proprietor of the Fro Islands, a group of small islets oif Trondhjems 

 fiord, in Norway. This gentleman has had an opportunity of watching 

 the gray seal {HaUehaerus gri/pHs) as it bred and rested on these rocks 

 during an extended period of time. Among many interesting notes as 

 to the biology of this large hair seal, he says, "As a proof that they 

 (the seals) fetch their food from a considerable depth, it is related that 

 a few years ago a young one was found caught by one of the hooks of 

 a fishing line that was placed at a depth of between 70 and SO fathoms, 

 on the outer side of the islands. Gray seals have several times been 

 seen to come up to the surface with lings [Molva vulr/aris) and other 

 deep-water fishes in their mouths, such fishes being seldom or never 

 found at a less depth than between 00 and 70 fathoms.'' (Kobert Collett, 

 on the Gray Seal, Proc. Zool. Soc, London: Part ii, 1881, p. 387.) 



O. MONSTKOSITIES AMONG THE SEALS. — Touching this question of 

 monstrosities, I was led to examine a number of alleged examjiles pre- 

 sented to my attention by the natives, who took some interest, in their 

 sluggish way, as to what I was doing here. They brought me an 

 albino fur-seal pup, nothing else, and gravely assured me that they 

 knew it owed its existence to the fecundation of a sea-lion cow by a fur- 

 seal bull: "If not so, how could it get that color?" I was also con- 

 fronted with a specimen — a full and finely grown 4-year-old Callorhinus 

 which had, at some earlier day, lost its testicles either by fighting or 

 accident while at sea; perhaps shaven off by the fangs of a saw-toothed 

 shark, and also gravely asked to subscribe to the presence of a 

 hermaphrodite! 



Undoubtedly some abnormal birth shapes must make their appear- 

 ance occasionally; but, at no time while 1 was there, searching keenly 

 for any such manifestation of malformation on the rookeries, did 1 see 

 a single example. The morjihological symmetry of the fur seal is one 

 of the most salient of its characteristics, viewed as it rallies here in 

 such vast numbers; but the osteological differentiation and asymmetry 

 of this animal is equally surprising. 



P. The derivation of the nomenclature of the rookeries. 

 The Reef rookery. — "The Reef," so called on account of that dangerous 

 line of submerged rocks, scarcely awash, which makes out to the south- 

 ward from the point. The very first seals of the season usually land 

 here every spring. 



ZoUoi liauling grounds. — From "Zolotoi,"or "golden," a Russian title 

 given to the beach on account, perhaps, of its beauty, contrasted with 

 the rough, rocky coasts elsewhere on the island. There is no trace of 

 precious mineral in its composition, however, or even the glint of iron 

 pyrites. 



Gorbotch rookery. — "Gorbotch," or "humpback;" this name doubt- 

 less given it from the broken-backed outline to the west shore of the 

 reef peninsula, on which the rookery is located. 



Xah tipeel rookery. — "Nali Speel," corrupted from "speetsah," or 

 point. Why so distorted I have not satisfactorily learned from the 



