FUR SEALS AND OTHER LIFE, PRIBILOF ISLANDS, 1914. 61 



the islands in no large numbers and associate with the pups rather than with the older seals. 

 But exact information as to their size and characteristics has been very limited. It is 

 probable that 2-year-olds, especially 2-year-old females, have been mistaken frequently 

 for yearlings not only by the agents and other white men but by the natives, who 

 have been regarded usually as expert in distinguishing the classes of seals. An incident 

 early in the season of 1914 indicates that this may have been the case. During a killing 

 on July I, the chief of the natives, John .Stepetin, in charge of the clubbers, was asked 

 if any yearlings were Ukely to appear, and upon his replying in the affirmative he was 

 requested to point them out. A few minutes later, a small pod of seals was driven up 

 and the native chief announced that it contained one yearling. Through misunder- 

 standing a motion made by the chief in pointing out this seal, one of the clubbers struck 

 it a blow and killed it. Therefore it was carefully measured and its skull was preserved. 

 Subsequent study and examination proved conclusively that it was a 2-year-old and not 

 a yearling. It was, however, approximately as small as any seal in the drive or as any 

 on the islands at that time or for several weeks later. Neither the agents nor the natives 

 pay much attention to seals during the few weeks just following the killing season when 

 the yearhngs really appear, so it is not unlikely that they have sometimes assumed that 

 the smallest seals present in June and July were yearlings. 



Knowledge of the movements of yearlings and of their size and weight has been 

 based largely on assumptions which, however justified by observation and logical proba- 

 biUties, have not been demonstrated beyond the possibihty of doubt by definite experi- 

 ment and exact record. 



Records of yearlings. — In conformity with the spirit of the law, no yearlings were 

 killed in 1914, but records and notes made in 1913 and not as yet pubHshed were found 

 to include much valuable data. With the object of securing exact information in regard 

 to yearlings, 5,529 pups were carefully branded in the fall of 1912 by direction of Special 

 Investigator George A.Clark. In 191 3 Mr. Clark searched for examples of these branded 

 animals to determine the yearling type, but up to the time of his departure from the 

 islands (August 9), he records the examination of only one, on July 24. Later in the 

 season, the agents and school-teachers on both islands continued to search for branded 

 yearhngs and found them only in very small numbers. Since these branded animals 

 were the only undoubted yearlings upon which observations ever were made, the notes 

 of the agents and school-teachers in the fall of 191 3 are highly important. Prior 

 to the month of August, as shown by the field notes of G. A. Clark, only one clearly 

 branded yearUng had been seen, on July 24, and during the remainder of the season 

 until November 1 1 only nine more were recorded. The very small number found led 

 to the contention that many of the pups of 191 2 must have succumbed to the branding. 

 Although this may have been a matter of uncertainty in 1913, the large number of 

 branded 2-year-olds which appeared in 1914 shows conclusively that it was not founded 

 in fact. As indicating the thoroughness of the search for branded yearlings in 1913, 

 the following notes of Mr. A. G. Whitney, school-teacher on St. Paul, are of interest: 



August 10. Spent an hour in the afternoon watching the seals at Kitovi from fox cairn at Rock 8. 

 Many cows and pups hauled back to edge of grass, and a hundred or more bachelors on the knoll at 

 Rock 10. A yearling, with a perfect T brand, playing with the pups and scampering about among 

 the dozing cows. This yearling, scarcely larger than the huskiest pups, and although slenderer and 

 more alert and agile, apparently no heavier than they. 



