LACK OF MALE LIFE NOT THE CAUSE. 295 



have been dispelled when I was informed that the combined fleets bad 

 warned ninety-one poaching schooners out of Bering Sea before August 

 25, 1891, and that each of the schooners had seal skinson board, which, 

 in the aggregate, numbered about 30,000, of which 00 per cent were 

 found to be females. 



During my stay on the islands I have never seen a time during the 

 breeding season when there has not been a mini 

 ber of large, vigorous young bulls hanging about S. B. Nettiet<m,p. 75. 

 the borders of the rookeries watching for an op- 

 portunity to get a position of their own. 



The '-dearth of bulls theory" has been thoroughly and impartially 

 investigated without discovering a cow of 3years 



old or over on the rookeries without a pup by Iter l. a. Noyes, j>. 84. 

 side :it the proper time, and 1 am convinced thar 



the virgin females coining onto the rookeries tor the first time are the 

 only ones to be found there without pups. 



The investigation established the additional fact that hundreds of 

 vigorous bulls were lying idle on the rookeries without cows, and many 

 others had to content themselves with only one or two. 



The theory of "impotency of the bull through overdriving" while 

 young was also found to be untrue, and it was shown that after LS78 

 all long drives on both islands had been abolished, and instead of 

 driving seals from 6 to 12 miles, as was done in Eussian times, none 

 were driven to exceed 2 \ miles. 



It is also a well known fact that none but the physically strong and 

 aggressive bulls can hold a position on the rookeries, and that a weak 

 or an impotent animal has no desire to go there. 



A dearth of bulls on the breeding rookeries was a pet theory of one 

 or two transient visitors, but it only needed a 

 thorough investigation of the condition of the ./. c Redpath, p. 151. 

 rookeries to convince the most skeptical that there 



were plenty of bulls, and to spare, and that hardly a cow could be 

 found on the rookeries without a pup at her side. 



For five years I have given this particular subject my most earnest 

 attention, and every succeeding year's experience has convinced me 

 that there is not and never was a dearth of bulls. The theory of impo- 

 tency of the young bulls because of overdriving when young is not 

 worthy of consideration by any sane or honest man who has ever seen 

 a bull seal ou a breeding rookery; and as I have already answered the 

 question of overdriving I will only add here that no young bull ever 

 gets upon a breeding rookery until he is able to fight his way in, and 

 an impotent bull has no desire to fight, nor could he win a position on 

 the rookery were he to attempt it. The man is not alive who ever saw 

 a six or seven year old bull seal impotent. 



There was always in both seasons a great sufficiency of adult males 

 to serve all the females coming to the island, and 

 I noticed each year a great number of idle, vigor- B. F. Scribner,p. 89. 

 ous bulls behind the breeding grounds who could 



not obtain consorts, and one of these extra bulls always took the place 

 of an old male unable longer to be of use for breeding purposes. 



And that the seals are not nearly so plentiful M. L. Washburn, p. 489. 

 as t hey were five or six years ago. 



