68 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



229. In the summer habitat within Behring: Sea, it has been noted by- 

 some of the more intelliffeut pelade sealers that fur-seals are found to 

 be numerous where "whale-food", abounds. The "whale-food" met 

 with in these seas consists of similar minute orsjanisms to those com- 

 posing " herring-food," and the seals are doubtless in search of the 

 smaller fishes wliich may be living upon this food. A further circum- 

 stance having the same general bearing is the frequently-observed 

 association of seals at sea, particularly in Eehring Sea, with abundance 

 of single fronds or tangled masses of drift kelp. This no doubt depends 

 partly on the fact that the kelp affords shelter and a measure of pro- 

 tection not only to the minute pelagic organisms, but also to the various 

 small fishes which prey upon these. It is, however, to be explained for 

 the most part by the circumstance, that the drift kelp accumulates in 

 areas of eddy or slack- water between the various marine currents, into 

 which these minute organisms with surface-fishes and the fur-seals 

 themselves naturally drift. 



230. The most important point to be gathered from these observations 

 is, that the fur-seal is not usually a bottom feeder, and that it is not 

 necessary that its fishing-grounds should be found ujion submarine 

 banks situated at such moderate depths as those to which the seal may 

 attain by diving or " sounding,"a hypothesis often advanced by theorists, 

 but which finds little basis in the known facts. 



231. That the fur-seal is essentially a pelagic surface feeder, is further 

 shown by the fact that it is not known to resort habitually to the best 

 fishing banks in Behring Sea, such, for instance, as the Baird bank, and 

 that fish, such as the cod and halibut, inhabiting water of some depth 

 and feeding along the bottom, are often found in considerable numbers, 

 not only near the breeding islands of the seal, but even in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the breeding rookeries of these islands. Such fish 

 are actually caught at various seasons by the natives of the Pribyloff 

 Islands within 1 or 2 miles of some of the largest rookeries on the south 

 side of St. Paul Island, and not more than 2^ or 3 miles off the rookeries 

 on the north shore of St. George Island. On one occasion, while at 

 anchor for a short time within less than half-a mile from the largest 

 rookery on Behring Island, at Cape Yushin, over twenty cod, with some 

 other fishes, were caught from our steamer with two or three hand lines, 

 in water not more than G or 7 fathoms in depth. 



232. Some particulars are given on a later page respecting the absten- 

 tion from food of the fur-seals while remaining upon or about the breed- 

 ing islands. It appears to be certain that the mature males doing duty 

 on the breeding rookeries do not feed at all during the breeding season, 

 and that for some time, at least several weeks, after landing, the breeding 

 females do not leave the rookery grounds in search of food. There is 

 no apparent reason why the "holluschickie," or young males, should 

 not go to sea in quest of fish. Singularly enough, however, though 

 animals of this class have been killed by hundreds of thousands upon 

 the breeding islands under all conceivable conditions of weather, and 



often within less than an hour of their deportation from their 

 40 hauling-grounds, the abnost universal testimony is to the ei^fect 

 that their stomachs are invariably found to be free from food. 



233. With a view to obtain such direct information on this subject as 

 might be possible, tlie stomachs of seals killed in our presence were 

 examined; and though the results of these examinations, noted below, 

 do not entirely confirm the statement just referred to, they show a 

 remarkable absence of food. The number of seals which it was thus 

 possible to examine was of course small. 



