ORAT. ARGUMENT OP JAMES 0. CARTER, ESQ. 187 



6. The bacliolor seals (holluscbickie) begin to arrive early in May, and large num- 

 bers are on the hauling grounds by the end of May or first week of June. 



They begin to leave the islands in November, but many remain into December or 

 January, and sometimes into February. 



7. The COW8 begin arriving early in June, and soon appear in large schools or 

 droves, immense numbers taking their places on the rookeries each day between the 

 middle and end of the mouth, the precise dates varying with the weather. They 

 assemble about the old bulls in compact groups called harems. 



The harems are coui])lete early in July, at which time the breeding rookeries attain 

 their maximum size and conipaetness. 



8. The cows give birth to their young soon after taking their places on the harems 

 in the latter part of .fuue and in July, but a few are delayed until August. The 

 period of gestation is between eleven and twelve months. 



9. A single young is born in each instance. The young at birth are about equally 

 divided as to sex. 



10. The act of nursing is performed on land, never in the water. It is necessary, 

 therefore, for the cows to remain at the islands until the young are weaned, which 

 is not until they are four or five months old. Each mother knows her own pup and 

 will not permit any other to nurse. This is the reason so many thousand pups starve 

 to death on the rookeries when their mothers are killed at sea. We have repeatedly 

 seen nursing cows come out of the water and search for their young, often traveling- 

 considerable distances and visiting group after group of pups before finding their 

 own. On reaching an assemblage of pups, some of which are awake and others 

 asleep, she rapidly moves about among them, sniffing at each, and then gallops off 

 to the next. Those that are awake advance toward her with the evident purpose of 

 nursing, but she repels them with a snarl and passes on. When she finds her own 

 she fondles it a moment, turns partly over on her side so as to present her nipi)les, 

 and it promptly begins to suck. In one instance we saw a mother carry her pup 

 back a distance of fifteen meters (fifty feet) before allowing it to nurse. It is said 

 that the cows sometimes recognize their young by their cry, a sort of bleat. 



11. Soon after birth the pups move away from the harems and huddle together 

 in small groups, called ''pods", along the borders of the breeding rookeries and at 

 some distance from the water. The small groups gradually nnite to form larger 

 groups, which move slowly down to the water's edge. When six or eight weeks old 

 the pups begin to learn to swim. Not only are the young not born at sea, but if soon 

 after birth they are washed into the sea they are drowned. 



12. The fur-seal is polygamous, and the male is at least five times as large as the 

 female. As a rule each male serves about fifteen or twenty females, but in some 

 cases as many as fifty or more. 



13. The act of copulation takes place on land, and lasts from five to ten minutes. 

 Most of the cows are served by the middle of .luly, or soon after the birth of thoir 

 pups. They then take the water, and come and go for food while nursing. 



14. Many young bulls succeed in securing a few cows behind or away from the 

 breeding harems, particularly late in the season (after the middle of July, at which 

 time the regular harems begin to break up). It is almost certain that many, if not 

 most, of the young cows are served for the first time by these young bulls, either on 

 the hauling grounds or along the water front. 



These bulls may be distinguished at a glance from those on the regular harems by 

 the circumstance that they are fat and in excellent condition, while those that have 

 fasted for three mouths ou the breeding rookeries are much emaciated and exhausted. 

 The young bulls, even when they have succeeded in capturing a number of cows, 

 can be driven from their stands with little difficulty, while (as is well known) the 

 old bulls on the harems will die in their tracks rather than leave. 



15. The cows are believed to take the bull first when two years old, and deliver 

 their first pup when three years old. 



16. Bulls first take stands on the breeding rookeries when six or seven years old. 

 Before this they are not powerful enough to fight the older bulls for positions on the 

 harems. 



17. Cows when nursing regularly travel long distances to feed. They are frequently 

 found one hundred or one hundred and fifty miles from the islands, and sometimes 

 at greater distances. 



18. The food of the fur-seal consists of fish, squids, crustaceans, and probably 

 other forms of marine life also. (See Appendix E.) 



19. The great majority of cows, pups, and such of the breeding bulls as have not 

 already gone, leave the islands about the middle of November, the date varying con- 

 siderably with the season. 



20. Part of the non-breeding male seals (holluscbickie), together with a few old 

 bulls, remain until January, and in rare instances until February, or even later. 



21. The fur-seal as a species is present at the Pribilof Islands eight or nine months 

 of the year, or from two-thirds to three-fourths of the time, and in mild winters 

 sometimes daring the entire year. The breeding bulls arrive earliest and remain 



