700 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



Page 113 : It is not plain to m liat rookeries Mr. Elliott here refers as 

 to the northward and westward and which had not in 1880 or for ten 

 years x)reviou8ly been noticed by the sealers. From the detailed list 

 of killings (Vol. II, p. 258 ff.) during these years it will be seen that all 

 the regular hauling grounds of all the rookeries were driven from with- 

 out exception. 



Page 139 : Our observations for the season of 1897 do not bear out 

 the statement here made that the sea lion does "not maintain any reg- 

 ular system and method in preparing for and attending to its harem." 

 It would seem to have quite as definitely a marked round of domestic 

 economy as the fur seal, and the same jealous exclusion of nonbreeding 

 males is maintained. 



Page 169: Such notes as seem pertinent in connection with the synop- 

 sis of Lieutenant Maynard's report here given will be reserved for the 

 present and given in connection with the full text, which appears later 

 in this volume. 



Page 291 : Lieutenant Maynard has confused and incorrectly stated 

 many facts which Mr. Elliott has correctly given. Tbere is probably no 

 valid ground whatever for the supposition that the female fur seal ever 

 gives birth to more than a single pup in a season. It is not true that 

 the yearling males and females associate together to any extent on the 

 hauling grounds. They probably come to the islands at ditterent times. 

 The females come latest, and doubtless spend their time for the most 

 part in the water, more rarely on the rookeries, playing with the pups 

 of the year. The pups begin to learn to swim in August instead of 

 Se])tember and October. By the 1st of September they are all good 

 swimmers. The killing of the pups by the surf is a tradition on the 

 islands arising from a misunderstanding of the phenomenon of dead 

 pups seen on the sand beaches after heavy gales, when the dead bodies 

 of pups from the neighboring breeding grounds are washed off by the 

 surf and deposited on the sand. The close observations of the seasons of 

 1890 and 1897 showed that few, if any, pups were killed in this way, while 

 it was as clearly demonstrated tliat the pups, after learning to swim, are 

 able to care for themselves in any kind of a sea. It is not true that the 

 pups and cows remain until all other animals have left the islands. The 

 Ijups and cows, as a class, leave first, in the early part of November, 

 unless the weather is unusually favorable. The old bulls and bachelors 

 remain later, the latter often continuing through December and into 

 January. In mild winters some have been known to remain about the 

 vicinity of the islands throughout the season. 



Page 292: While it is true that at birth' the covering of the pup is 

 chiefly black hair, there is still the beginning of a coat of fur which, 

 by the middle of September, has grown to be about as long in pro- 

 portion as in the adult. The black hair is gradually replaced by a 

 coat of gray, which deepens in color, and when the pup leaves the 

 islands in November it has its full coat of fur, which is not easily dis- 

 tinguished from that of its yearling brother. 



Lieutenant Maynard here accepts the estimate of Mr. Elliott for the 

 breeding seals and their young, but differs from him in his estimate of 

 the nonbreeding seals, finding as his total for all classes of seals " not 

 far from 6,000,000." Mr. Elliott's estimate was 4,700,000. This differ- 

 ence between the two observers shows clearly that but little definite 

 value can be attached to either estimate. 



Page 295: Lieutenant Maynard here states what is the fact, that at 

 the outset St. George Island was considered capable of yielding one- 



