110 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES, 
LOSS OF COWS AT SEA. 
It has been ascertained several times the past few years that the 
loss of cows at sea the first three years is approximately 50 per cent 
of all of those born. No data have come to hand which call for a 
revision of this result. It is an enormous death toll, and though it 
is almost certainly due to the work of some pelagic enemy, we know 
very little of it. Killer whales are known to devour the animals and 
are suspected of being their only enemy, yet proof is not to be had. 
Bryant has recorded the taking of 18 and 24 fur-seal pups, respec- 
tively, from the stomachs of two killers—$2,000 meals, each of them. 
The investigation of this matter 1s one of the important tasks for the 
future. There are few studies which promise such fruitful results 
as would attend the successful solving of this problem. The pro- 
tection afforded the cows and the consequent increased rate of growth 
of this class would be the permanent and most important benefit to 
the species and to man. 
Actual figures as to the number of fur seals killed at sea under 
the treaty provisions allowing aborigines to hunt them are not yet 
available to me. Dispatches in the daily press, however, indicate 
that they are assuming proportions little short of alarming. 
The proportions of the sexes taken in this pelagic catch are not 
known, but there is good reason to suppose that it consists largely 
of females. For the sake of convenience it may be assumed that 
2,000 females were killed altogether on all coasts. This would 
reduce the Pribilof herd by double the number, or 4,000 in 1920, 
because the unborn pup is destroyed with the mother. In other 
words, the mainstay class of the herd has been reduced in a single 
season by over 1 per cent. 
This matter is called to attention in the hope that a beginning may 
be made in solving the difficulty. Rather than have cows slaugh- 
tered it would be far preferable, if skins the Indians must have, to 
do as we have with Great Britain and Japan, give them an equiva- 
lent number of males from the land catch. 
BRANDED ANIMALS. 
Cows bearing the inverted T brand of 1912 on the top of the head 
were, as usual, in evidence on many of the rookeries. At Lukanin 
on St. Paul Island one was noted which was not believed to have 
been many hours out of the water. Two days later she had given 
birth to her pup but was located in a harem two bulls removed from 
where she was first seen. She was then seen each day until the 
eighth after her arrival. She could not be located later on_the 
rookery, although she must have returned to nurse her pup. This 
confirms almost exactly a record made by W. I. Lembkey on the 
same rookery in 1902. 
Further information was gained regarding those branded animais 
which may be conveniently classed as the 1902 series. A close study 
of them was begun in 1918 and the subject is dealt with at some 
length in the Alaska report for that year, pages 121 and 122. 
