FEEDING EXCURSIONS. 155 



last year we only caught l. r >0. Most of them were eow seals, having 

 given birth to their young, and their breasts bad milk in them. I saw 

 the milk running out of their breasts on the deck as they were being 

 skinned. 



When the pup is a few days old the cow goes into the sea to feed, 

 and as the pup grows older the cow will stay 



longer and longer, until sometimes she will be Anton .Mch>vedoff,p. 144. 

 away for a week. My opinion, therefore, is that 



none but the mother seals go out in the sea to eat during the time the 

 herds are on the islands, and this accounts for the great number of 

 cows shot by the sealing schooners in Bering Sea during July, August, 

 and September. 



The young males or bachelors that are killed for skins are found to 

 be full of food in May and early in June, but their 

 stomachs are empty when killed in July or later. u f me ™ Melovidov, p. 

 This shows, I think, that none go out to feed in 

 the sea except the cows during the time they are nursing their young. 



Have killed seals 250 miles from the Pribilof &• E. Miner, p. 466. 

 Island, with milk. 



After birth a pup at once begins to suckle its mother, who leaves its 

 offspring only to go into the water for food, which 

 I believe from my observation consists mainly of T. F. Morgan, p. 62. 

 fish, squids, and crustaceans. In her search for 



food the female, in my opinion, goes 40 miles or even farther from the 

 islands. 



The bachelors while on the islands, in my opinion, feed very little, 

 and practically it is only the female seals which feed while located on 

 the islands. The speed of a seal when swimming is very great, cover- 

 ing, I should say, from 10 to 15 miles an hour. Therefore a female can 

 easily go to the feeding grounds and return to the islands in a day; 

 and that so far as I am able to ascertain the foregoing tacts are practi- 

 cally corroborated by all those who have had the opportunity to study 

 or observe seal life on the PribUof Islands and in Bering Sea. 



They sometimes go out from 100 to 200 miles off the islands, while 

 the young ones still remain on the islands. After 

 they have been on the islands they contain no pup, Niles Nelson, p. 470. 

 so the hunter can see if the seal has been on the 



islands or not. I have killed, and seen killed, mothers in milk 100 or 

 more miles from the islands. 



During these journeys, in my opinion, she goes a distance of from 40 

 to 200 miles from the islands to feed; and it is at 

 this time she falls a prey to the pelagic hunter. L. A.Noyes, p. 82. 



In my opinion, the cows are the only seals that 

 go into the sea to feed from the time they haul out in May till they 

 leave the islands in November or December; and my opinion is based, 

 on the fact that the seals killed in May have plenty of food in their 

 stomachs, mostly codfish, while those kdled in July have no signs of 

 anything like food in their stomachs. 



Again, the males killed for food as the season advances are found to 

 be poorer and poorer, and in all cases after July their stomachs are 



