FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1910. 27 



ST. PAUL EXPERIMENTS. 



Perhaps a dozen or more starving pups were gathered off the 

 various rookeries and brought to the village. An inclosure was 

 built at the end of the village pond and the pups were placed in this. 



A bottle with an ordinary rubber nipple was used in a first attempt 

 to induce the little animals to nurse. This method failing, however, 

 milk was poured down the pups' throats from the bottle. But this, 

 besides being difficult and tedious, was uncertain and wasteful, as 

 most of the milk was ejected by the pups before being swallowed. 

 To feed a dozen or more pups with a bottle, moreover, occupied the 

 services of half a dozen men for nearly half a day. Afterwards a 

 tube attached to a funnel was passed into the stomach of each pup 

 and the feeding was accomplished by this means. 



Owing to lack of proper material the inclosure in which the pups 

 were placed could not be made tight enough to retain them. Some 

 of the pups escaped to the sea; the others died. Feeding with, solid 

 food was not attempted. 



Upon the departure of the Bear on her last trip from the islands, 

 10 healthy pups upon which no feeding experiments had been 

 attempted were taken from St. Paul rookeries and placed aboard that 

 vessel to be shipped to Seattle for the use of the Bureau. All of these 

 arrived safely, having been schooled on the voyage to eat solid food. 



ST. GEORGE EXPERIMENTS. 



Fifteen starving pups were gathered on St. George Island at various 

 times and different methods were tried to save their lives. 



These starvelings readily ate all the small live fish that could be 

 obtained and such other larger fish as the weather would permit the 

 natives to capture offshore. In addition the pups ate salted salmon 

 after it had been freshened in water. Had enough live or fresh dead 

 fish been obtainable it is believed that at least some of the pups that 

 were fed artificially could have been saved. 



On September 10, 1910, four starving pups were secured and their 

 frenums cut. All were fed by injections of milk into the stomach. 

 One died that night from congestion of the lungs, probably because 

 of the introduction into the pulmonary tract of milk while feeding. 

 Upon autopsy of this animal, a piece of coal as large as a walnut 

 was found lodged in the pylorus. Two of the others escaped the first 

 night. 



A corral, having a tank 4 feet by 8 feet and 1 foot deep, was then 

 built and two more pups in addition to the one now remaining were 

 placed in it on September 15. Into this tank filled with w r ater were 

 placed a number of small fish caught among the rocks (probably 

 Neoliparis). The pups ate all of these at once and some sculpin cut 



