108 THE PUPS. 



take it in her mouth as a cat carries kittens, and bring it again ashore, 

 only to again push it oft* the rock into the water. My observation has 

 been that a pup is generally about two months old before it can swim. 



The pups are helpless when born, and they can not swim; and they 

 would drown it' put into water, and I have seen 



Mcoli Krukoff, p. 133. them drown when swept oft' by the surf in bad 

 weather. 



The pups when firstborn can not swim, and will drown if they are 



put into water. 

 Aggei Eushen, p. 129. I have seen many pups drowned when washed 

 off the edge of tin 1 rookery by the surf. They do 

 not go into the water until they are six or eight weeks old, and then 

 they will keep in shallow water and close to the shore for several days 

 more. 

 They seem to like to stay on land until late in the season. 



And if born in the water, or swept from the shore soon after the 

 birth, as I have several times witnessed, by the 

 H. II. Mclntyre, p. 41. outgoing surf of heavy seas, perish from inability 

 to swim. At this time they are simply land ani- 

 mals, with less aquatic instinct and less ability to sustain themselves 

 in water than newly-hatched ducklings. 



The pups, when born, can not swim or help themselves in any way, 



and they are entirely dependent on the cows for 



Simeon Melovidov,p. 146. sustenance. They are or 8 weeks old before 



they can swim, and were they put into the water 



when born they would perish, for they are not then amphibious. 



When first born a pup can only live upon land, is not amphibious, 

 and is unable to swim. If it is washed off into 



T. F. Morgan, p. 61. the sea by the surf it is drowned, as I have often 

 seen. 



A pup is also unable to swim, and I have seen pups thrown in the 

 water when their heads would immediately go 



J. H. Houlion, p. 72. under and they would inevitably drown if not 

 rescued. 



The pup when born is as helpless as a newborn lamb, and as incapa- 

 ble of living upon the water. It is not until six 

 S. E. Nettleton, p. 75. or eight weeks old that the pup of the fur-seal can 

 swim. If, as is often the ease, a pup should be 

 swept from the rookery into the surf before it had learned to swim, it 

 would be drowned. Every season young pups in more or less numbers 

 are thus drowned. 



When the pup is born it is utterly helpless and dependent; it is not 



amphibious, and would drown if put into water. 



L. A. Notjrs, p. 82. I have often watched the pups near the water's 



edge when in stormy weather the surf carried 



them off, and in every instance they drowned as soon as they went into 



deep water. 



