DESTRUCTION OF PREGNANT FEMALES. 435 



Q. What percentage of the cows are taken with pup? — A. All the 

 large ones have-all the grown females have. ckas.H. Ragman, p.m. 

 Very seldom you find a barren one. 



A large majority of seals taken are females with young. Only two 

 old bulls were taken by me last year out of the 



100 seals taken. But very few yearlings are Martin Hannon, p. U5. 

 taken. Paid no attention to sex. A few male 

 seals are taken between two and four years old, I think. 



Q. What percentage of the cows taken are with pups? — A. You can 

 safely say about four-fifths of them. You get CT „ ,, 



i 4. or\f\ 4- c i nrwi i -"• Harmsen,p.412. 



about 800 out of 1,000 seals. 1l 



We commenced sealing right off the coast; went as far south as the 

 California coast and then hunted north to the west 

 coast of Vancouver Islands ; caught 500 skins dur- Jas. Harrison, p. 326. 

 in g the season; almost all of them were pregnant 

 females; out of a hundred seals taken about 90 per cent would be fe- 

 males with young pups in them. 



I am told the white hunter kills mostly cow seal Sam HayiJcahtla,p. 240. 

 with pup. 



I have often conversed with masters, seamen, and hunters engaged 

 in hunting the fur-seals, and their statements to me 

 have always been that the capture of a male seal J. M. Hays, p. 27. 

 was a rarity ; that nearly all of their catch were cow 



seals heavy with young, or those who had given birth to their young 

 on the islands, and gone out to the fishing- bank to feed, and that they 

 lose a large proportion of those killed and wounded. 



Q. What percentage of the cows you have taken Wm. Henson, p. 483. 

 were with pup ? — A. At least 00 per cent were 

 with pup. 



Of the seals secured in a season fully 70 per cent are females, and of 

 these more than 00 per cent are pregnant and 



milking cows. The males taken are about equally Norman Hodgson, p. 367. 

 divided in numbers between yearlings and bache- 

 lors from the ages of 2 to 5 years; bulls are seldom shot. 



Q. What percentage of the cows you have taken were with pup? — 

 A. About the same amount [about 95 per cent] 



were with pup. And - J - Hoffman, p. 446. 



Most all seals taken are females with young. * * * A few 

 male seal are taken. I would say they are gen- 

 erally 3 or 4 years old. A few yearlings are E.Hofstad, .p. 260. 

 killed, mostly females. About five bull seal are 

 killed out of every hundred taken. 



About one-half of those caught along the coast were full-grown cows 

 with pups in them ; a few were medium-sized males, 

 and the rest were younger seals of both sexes. I Alfred Irving, p. 386, 

 have never caught a full-grown cow in the straits 

 or along the coast that did not have a pup in her. 



