NUMBER OF DEAD PUPS IN 1891. 471 



Where the water side of the rookeries, as at "Northeast Point" and 

 the reef (south of the village), were on rocky ground the immense 

 number of dead was not so apparent, but a closer examination showed 

 that the dead were there in equally great number scattered among the 

 rocks. In some localities the ground was so thickly strewn with the 

 dead that one had to pick his way carefully in order to avoid stepping 

 on the carcasses. The great mass of dead in all cases was within a 

 short distance of the water's edge. The patches of dead would com- 

 mence at the water's edge and stretch in a wide swath up into the 

 rookery. Amongst the immense masses of dead were seldom to be 

 found the carcasses of full-grown seals, but the carcasses were those of 

 pups, or young seals born that year. I can give no idea of the exact 

 number of dead, but I believe that they could only be numbered by the 

 thousands on each rookery. Along the water's edge, and scattered 

 amongst the dead, were quite a number of live pups, which were in an 

 emaciated condition. Many had hardly the strength to drag them- 

 selves out of one's way; thus contrasting strongly, both in appearance 

 and actions, with the plump condition and active aggressive conduct 

 of the healthy appearing pups. 



One day, during the latter part of August or forepart of September 

 last (exact date forgotten), Col. Joseph Murray, 



one of the Treasury agents, and myself, in com- Milton Barnes, p. 101. 

 pany with the British Commissioners, Sir George 



Baden-Powell and Dr. Dawson, by boat visited one of the seal rooker- 

 ies of that island, known as Tolstoi or English Bay. On arriving there 

 our attention was at once attracted by the excessive number of dead 

 seal pups whose carcasses lay scattered profusely over the breeding 

 ground or sand beach bordering the rookery proper, and extending 

 into the border of the rookery itself. The strange sight occasioned 

 much surmise at the time as to the probable cause of it. Some of the 

 carcasses were in an advanced stage of decay, while others were of re- 

 cent death, and their general appearance was that of having died of 

 starvation. There were a few that still showed signs of life, bleating 

 weak and piteously, and gave every evidence of being in a starved con- 

 dition, with no mother seals near to or showing them any attention. 



Dr. Dawson, while on the ground, took some views of the rookery 

 with his kodak; but whether the views he took included the dead pups 

 I could not say. Some days after this — can not state exact date — 

 I drove with Mr. Fowler, an employe" of the lessees, to what is known 

 as Halfway Point, or Polovinia rookery. Here the scene was re- 

 peated, but on a more extensive scale in point of numbers. The little 

 carcasses were strewn so thickly over the sand as to make it difficult 

 to walk over the ground without stepping on them. This condition of 

 the rookeries in this regard was for some time a common topic of con- 

 versation in the village by all parties, including the more intelligent 

 ones among the natives, some of whom were with Mr. J. Stanley Brown 

 in his work of surveying the island and brought in reports from time 

 to time of similar conditions at substantially all the rookeries around 

 the island. It could not, of course, be well estimated as to the num- 

 ber thus found dead, but the most intelligent of the natives — chief of 

 the village — told me that in his judgment there were not less than 

 20,000 dead pups on the various rookeries of the island and others still 

 dying. 



