FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY. 93 
would still be a large excess of idle bulls over those necessary to maintain the minimum 
average harem. 
Yearlings —The yearling seals spend a very short time on land. For this reason 
they were unknown as a type for a great many years. They are the last of the herd to 
reach the islands on the northern migration. Very few reach St. George Island before 
July 20 and almost none reach St. Paul Island before August 1. They become abun- 
dant on St. George by August 10 and on St. Paul by August 20. The evidence is almost 
conclusive that this is the only category of the seals which does not arrive at both 
islands almost simultaneously. 
On September 10, 1915, the entire stretch of Zoltoi Sands, St. Paul Island, was occu- 
pied by yearlings and pups, the first time for a great many years. The yearlings are 
not so heavy as the largest pups at that season, but are much more agile and lithe. The 
fact that the flippers outgrow the rest of the body is one of the most characteristic fea- 
tures of the yearlings. Before leaving the islands in November and December a large 
number of the pups exceed them in weight. Some are heavier by 20 pounds. Once 
recognized, the yearlings are rarely confused with the larger 2-year-olds, 
The number of yearlings in the herd must necessarily be computed from the number 
of births the previous year. The percentage to be deducted for loss at sea is carefully 
considered on page 83. For the first year 35 per cent is the best figure at present avail- 
able. That 50 per cent, the figure previously used, is too high is shown by the 3- 
year-old cows coming on the rookeries in 1915 in greater numbers than should have 
been in existence had this estimated percentage of loss been an actual fact. The fig- 
ures of 1915 show that the total loss through the first three years is only 50 per cent. It 
may not beso great as this, but appears large in 1915 because of the lagging influences 
of pelagic sealing. The division of the 50 per cent loss for the first three years between 
the classes is arbitrary and must necessarily remain so. It is here considered as 35 
per cent loss the first year, 20 per cent the second, and 4 per cent the third year. The 
high percentage of loss the second year is warranted by the fact that when the yearlings 
leave the islands in the fall they are relatively in poor condition. The pups on the 
other hand are rolling fat and likewise many of the 2-year-olds. In variance to 
commonly accepted opinion, the period of greatest hardship for the young seal does 
not appear to be over until it is well into the second winter. Many of the yearlings 
seen in 1913, 1914, and 1915 were very poor. They probably have almost as hard a 
time to live as the pups do. 
Applying the loss of 35 per cent for the first year to the total births of 1914 there 
remain a total of 60,613 male and female yearlings. Half of these should be of each sex. 
Two-year-olds.—The 2-year-old seal is a well-known type. The males come to the 
islands as a class a few days later than the older seals, usually after the middle of June. 
It is a well-recognized fact on the islands that the earliest drives are almost devoid of 
“Tittle seals,’’ and contain a large number of young bulls. The 2-year-old seals were 
long thought to be yearlings and are still considered such by many of the natives, 
But their inability to distinguish between the different classes of seals was well shown 
in 1915. The most intelligent of the natives declared that some of the branded 3-year- 
old males killed were 2-year-olds because they were smaller than what they had 
become accustomed to regard as the 3-year-old type. They did this in spite of the fact 
that they themselves put the brands on those identical seals when they were pups 
in 1912, 
The 2-year-old males arrive at the islands some two weeks earlier than the females. 
The latter return to land for their first impregnation after most of the pups are born, 
No known 2-year-olds were killed on St. Paulin 1915. That is, no seals were killed 
which were less in body length than the smallest known 3-year-old which was killed, 
Consequently no deductions are made from the 2-year-old class for any killed in 1915. 
Skin weights are so absolutely fallacious as a criterion in determining the class to 
which the animals belong that they can not even be considered. Thirty-one per cent 
