TIME OF APPEARANCE OF DEAD PUPS. 4G9 



I am informed that of late years thousands of young pups have died 

 on the islands while the season was in progress. 

 Certainly such condition did not exist during my J- M. Morton, p. 69. 

 residence on the Pribilof group. The "pups" 



were sometimes trampled upon by the larger animals, and dead ones 

 might be seen here and there on the rookeries, but the loss in this par- 

 ticular was never large enough or important enough to excite any 

 special comment. 



My observation in regard to the pup-seal life during those years was 

 that the loss from natural causes was exceedingly 

 small. I made frequent visits to the breeding rook- LJ. G. Otis, p. 87. 

 eries during and after the close of the breeding 



season, and found only a very small number of dead bodies; it was a 

 rare thing to find a dead pup seal. In one of my official reports I made 

 an estimate of the loss from natural causes, which I fixed, I believe, at 

 only 1 or 2 per cent of all classes. 



Never while I was on St. George Island did I sec a dead pup on the 

 rookeries, and I certainly should have noticed if B F Scriuner p 89 

 there had been any number on the island. 



During the year I was on the island of St. George I did not see to 

 exceed twenty-five dead pups on the rookeries, 

 and the bodies of these were not emaciated, but W, B. Taylor, p. 176. 

 had evidently been killed by the old bulls climb- 

 ing over them in their combats. 



While I was on the island I never saw more than twenty-five dead 

 pups on the rookeries during any one season. I 

 have seen occasionally a dead one among the Geo. Wardman, p. 118. 

 bowlders along the shore, which had probably 



been killed by the surf; but these dead pups were in no instance ema- 

 ciated. 



TIME OF APPEARANCE OF DEAD PUPS. 



Page 213 of The Case. 



The loss of life of pup seals on the rookeries up to about 1884 or 1885 

 was comparatively slight and was generally at- 

 tributed to the death of the mother seal from W. S. Hereford, p. 32. 

 natural causes or from their natural enemies in 



the water, or, as sometimes happened, sudden storms with heavy surfs 

 rolling in from certain directions onto the breeding rookeries, but never 

 at any time would a sufficient number of pups be killed to make it the 

 subject of special comment, either among the natives or the employes 

 of the company. 



As I was not present on the islands in the fall of 1885, I am unable 

 to make a statement as to the number of dead 

 pups on the rookeries in that year, but in 1886 I A. P. Load, p. 38. 

 saw a large number of dead pups lying about. 



These pups were very much emaciated, and evidently had been starved 

 to death. * * * 



In 1887 the number of dead pups was much larger than in 1880. In 



