156 THE COWS. 



empty. I am convinced, therefore, that none but mother seals go into 

 the sea to iced during the summer months, and this accounts for the 

 sudden decrease in the herd after the sealing schooners became so nu- 

 merous in Bering Sea about 1884. 



John OUen,p.m. We caught these mothers, full of milk, from 50 



to 150 miles oft the seal islands. I shot twenty- 

 eight myself. 



When the pup is from 4 to 6 days old, the mother goes into the water 



for food and, as time passes, her stay becomes 



J. C. Redpath, p.148. longer, until finally she will be away from her pup 



for several days at a time, and sometimes for a 



whole week. During these longer migrations she often goes 200 miles 



from the rookery, and I have been informed by men who were engaged 



in the trade of pelagic hunting that they had taken " mothers in milk" 



at a distance of over 200 miles from the seal islands. 



The cows, however, eat, and sometimes go GO miles to get food, and 

 perhaps farther. Old experienced poachers in- 



T. F. Ryan,}). 175. formed me that they remained that distance from 



the islands to capture the seals when they came 

 to feed. 



Sometimes we opened them and found young pups inside, and some- 

 times they were mothers that had given birth to 



AdolphusSayers,p. 473. their young and their breasts were full of milk, 

 and we often killed them 100 miles or more from 

 the seal islands. 



The cows, however, go and come at will after the pups are dropped, 

 and may be found in large numbers with the 



C. M. Scammon,p. 475. mammary glands distended with milk many miles 

 from the breeding grounds. 



Of the females taken in Bering Sea nearly all are in milk, and I have 

 seen, the milk come from the careasses of dead 

 L. Gr. Shepard,p. 189. females lying on the decks of sealing vessels which 

 were more than 100 miles from the Pribilof Is- 

 lands. From this fact, and from the further fact that I have seen seals 

 in the water over 150 miles from the islands during the summer, I am 

 convinced that the female, after giving birth to her young on the rook- 

 eries, goes at least 150 miles, in many cases, from the islands in search 

 of food. 



Wm. R. Smith, p. 478. Have taken female seals in Bering Sea about 



145 miles from the Pribilof Islands. 



Seals killed in Bering Sea after the birth of the pups are largely 



mother seals, and the farther they are found 



Z.L. Tanner, p. 37L from the islands the greater the percentage will 



be. The reason for this seeming paradox is very 



simple. The young males, having no family responsibilities, can afford 



to hunt nearer home, where food can be found if sufficient time is 



devoted to the search. The mother does not leave her young except 



when necessity comx)els her to seek food for its sustenance. She can 



