470 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



know that the loss in pap returns is far greater. It looks as though 

 not more than one-quarter are returning this season of 1890 as yearlings. 



There should be at least from 3,000 to 5,000 yearlings out on the haul- 

 ing grounds of this rookery daily, now, estimating that only half of 

 them, as in 1872, are or have been destroyed at sea since they left this 

 ground of their birth last autumn. But raking and scraping the whole 

 extent of this rookery to day would not produce a "drive" of GOO hol- 

 luschickie of all ages, 450 of them to 500, yearlings, and the balance 

 chietly 2-year-olds. 



I have been looking every day since the 15th instant, over the rook- 

 eries and hauling grounds for the percentage of yearling returns. By 

 this time all those seals should show up if they are to show up at all 

 this year. They all arrived here by the 20th of July in 1872-1874, and 

 I presume now, this 27th day of July, that it is fair to demand a count. 



July 30, 1890. — The pups nearest the water's edge on this rookery 

 under the bluffs are all attempting to swim this afternoon. A high 

 south- south west wind has caused a heavy back swell, which throws 

 water up and over into a series of odd yet perfect salt-water bath tubs, 

 caused by the foundation of several basaltic basins in the beach mar- 

 gin of the rookery here. Above and below this place, those pups which 

 are exposed to the full and direct wash of the surf, are not making any 

 effort to play and swim in that water, but have crept higher up and are 

 still crawling up, so as to get entirely out of the sj^ray. 



Most of the pups to-day, on this rookery, have "podded" back; some 

 of them 150 feet from the sea margin, where, with their mothers, they 

 are mixed up and mixing all the time with the holluschickie that are 

 hauling. 



The holluschickie are chiefly 1-year-olds ; nine-tenths of the several 

 pods hauled out here to-day are yearlings, A great many yearling 

 females are halting down at the landings in and among the scattered 

 harems, aimlessly iiaddling about. Their slight forms and bright sil- 

 very backs, white throats and abdomens, are shining out very brightly 

 in contrast with the dark rocks, the dull brown and rusty coats of the 

 "matkahs," and still rustier forms of the old " seecatchie." These 

 young yearling cows finally drift up into the rear, join in the medley of 

 sex and age there, and go and come with the rest as they go and come 

 during the remainder of the season. 



I have noticed this year, because I began at the outset to look for 

 them, that the yearlings which come out in June were invariably males 

 as far as I could see, whenever they were examined, as I had frequent 

 opportunity to do, as they easily and often smother and fall in the pods 

 into a sort of stupor which permits you to lift them by their hind flip- 

 pers and drag them out of the way. But when the cows begin to arrive 

 in full form and number, about the 1st to the 10th of July, then the 

 female yearlings also appeared in the herds as a class for the first time. 



This points to the natural fact that the young yearling males instinc- 

 tively flock together and follow the older males on their return trip to 

 the islands: while the cows attract the young females as a class — just 

 as toddling boys will follow the older boys and men, while the little 

 girls avoid them and flock with the young women and their elders of 

 the same sex. 



By the 20th of every July all the cows, nubile and maternal, have 

 arrived, and that arrival brings in the last wave of yearling animals for 

 the season. So that all of the seals that are to appear for the year are 

 now on hand, have hauled out, and now finally haul out. It is this final 

 and finishing arrival of the yearling cows that swells the numbers of 



