250 THE SEALS. 



bachelors, having no inclination and vigor to maintain himself on the 

 rookeries. 



It is asserted by Mr. Eiliott, in a report made subsequent to that 

 above cited, from which I have seen extracts, that 

 GeorgeH. Temple,p. 154. permanent injury results to the male seal from the 

 practice of repeatedly bringing him up to the kill- 

 ing grounds and letting him go again because of some defect in his 

 skin, or for the reason that he is needed as a breeder. He does not 

 say what he saw among the old males to justify any such conclusion, 

 and I do not believe it is warranted by the facts. When the seals get 

 back to the water after a long drive they are, of course, considerably 

 fatigued, but leap as gaily as usual after a little rest, and play with 

 their fellows on shore with their accustomed vivacity on the day fol 

 lowing the drive. 



There are always some disabled seals on the beaches described by 

 Mr. Elliott as "hospital rookeries," where those maimed in the conflict 

 for supremacy on the breeding grounds and decrepit old males too old 

 for further service haul up to rest and heal their wounds. The num- 

 ber of such animals is never large in proportion to the whole herd, and 

 all others represent the highest type of virility, vigor, and strength. 



The only injury 1 ever noticed from redriving was that the hind 

 nippers of yearlings which had been driven sev- 



Geo. Wardman,p. 179. eral times would be slightly abraded. They were 

 footsore, you might say, but there were no injury 

 to the reproductive organs of the males driven. 1 am satisfied the 

 natives would have noticed it and spoken to the Government agents 

 about it if we had overlooked the fact. My attention was never called 

 to anything of this kind, and in all my experience I never heard of a 

 male being so injured. Even if a male were driven once a day for ten 

 successive days, I am certain that such driving would not impair his 

 future usefulness as a progenitor of his species. 



The seal usually makes one rookery his home, and so the same seal, 

 when not up to the standard for killing, is driven 

 S. M. Washburn. )>. 155. several times in one season to the killing grounds 

 to find his way back to the rookery when those 

 suitable for killing have been dispatched. They are fresh for the suc- 

 ceeding jurneys, which take place at intervals of several days, as for 

 the first one. The methods of the lessees in killing their quota and in 

 cure for the perservation of the great body of the herd were, in my 

 judgment, as judicious as could be taken. 



Seals turned away from the killing grounds return to the rookery 

 from which they were driven, therefore a male 



Danl. Webster, p. 182. seal is not redriven day after day, because a haul- 

 ing ground is always given several days' rest be- 

 fore being driven from again. 1 never saw or heard of the generative 

 organs of a male seal being injured by driving or by redriving, and if 

 such a thing had taken place, even in exceptional cases, the natives 

 would have noticed and reported it, which they never did. I have seen 

 a seal's flippers made sore by driving, but 1 never saw one that was 

 seriously injured by driving. 1 do not believe that a male seal's powers 

 of reproduction were ever effected by driving or redriving. 



