REASON PREGNANT FEMALES ARE TAKEN. 449 



I am informed and believe that the reason of there being such a large 

 proportion of females among the coast skins is be- 

 cause the male, which is powerful and strong, Geo. Liebcs, p. 511. 

 usually swims more rapidly and at a longer dis- 

 tance from the coast, and are so scattered and active and hard to catch 

 that it does not pay to hunt them. The female heavy with young 

 easily tires, and sleeps on the water, and is easily shot while in that 

 condition. 



I have known of several expeditions that have been fitted out for the 

 purpose of following and capturing the seals after 

 they leave the Pribilof Islands and are making Isaac Liebes, p. 454. 

 their southern course. All these expeditions have 



proved utter failures, which is accounted for by the fact that the 

 female seals at that period of the year are not heavy with young as 

 they are in the spring, nor as fat as at a later period, and the hunters 

 can not easily get within gunshot distance of them. They are much 

 less likely to be found asleep at this season, and traveling seals are 

 difficult to shoot and still more difficult to take in before they sink. 

 The hunters have an idea that the sleeping seals are buoyed up by an 

 inflated internal air bladder. Whether this is so or not it is certain 

 that a "sleeper" is more likely to be secured after it is shot than a 

 " traveler." 



The male seals of merchantable size do not intermingle, I believe, to 

 any extent with the cows caught off the coast of i^orth America. They 

 make their northern passage separate from the others, and further off 

 shore. As they are more constantly on the alert than the females, the 

 sealers have met with little success in hunting them. It is only the 

 cow, heavy with pup, which, in consequence of her condition, is less 

 active and alert, that falls an easy prey to the hunters. 



Mother seals heavy with young are much easier William H. Long, p. 

 taken, for they are usually asleep on the water. 458. 



Q. Why is it, in your opinion, that more female than male seals are 

 killed by the poachers ? — A. Because, first, in the 

 passage of the seals to the islands in the early 13 f nton Melovedo #> P- 

 season the females travel in groups and the males 



scatter; secondly, after arriving at the islands the males remain on or 

 about the hauling grounds, while the females, having their pups to 

 nurse, go out into the sea to obtain food. 



Q. How do you tell the skin of a female from that of a male? — A. By 

 the nipples and general appearance. 



As I understand the fact to be, most of the seals killed in the open 

 sea are females. My reasons for this conclusion 

 are (1) that, from my knowledge of the seal,. I T. F. Morgan, p. 64. 

 know that the female when heavy with young, 



as they are during the early part of the season when on their way to 

 the rookeries where they are delivered during the months of June and 

 July, are much heavier in the water and much less able to escape, be- 

 cause they are capable of remaining under water to escape for a very 

 much less period of time than when they are not heavy with young, or 

 jthan the male seal would be. 

 29B 3 



