REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 69 



On St. George Island, twenty seals were killed on tlie 1st Anj;ttst in 

 our presence. These were selected from a drive made froui the nearest 

 part of the Great Northern Rookery, to the killing ground about half- 

 a-mile distaut, and had been about three hours oft' the rookery before 

 they were killed. Of these twenty young- males, the stomachs gave 

 the following results: 



Seventeen : no food whatever, in most a little slimy matter, froth or 

 bile, and often a few lively worms. 



One: a handful of small pebbles. 



One: a clot of brownish blood. 



One: an isopod crustacean, about an inch in length, and a few frag- 

 ments of fish bones. 



234. On St. Paul Island, the 3rd August, the stomachs of ninety- 

 eight young males were examined. These were selected from a drive 

 made from Zoltoi sands to the killing ground, a distance of about 2,000 

 feet, from which they had been driven early in the same morning, pos- 

 sibly two or three hours before being killed. The contents of these 

 stomachs, in addition to a few worms present in many cases, were as. 

 follows : 



Sixty-five, contained nothing, or, in some cases, a pinch of sand, or 

 a small quantity of slimy or frothy matter. 



Seventeen, contained pebbles, sometimes several, in other cases but 

 a single iiebble. 



Six, showed a rather notable quantity of bright yellow bile. 



Four, contained some blood, generally somewhat changed in colour 

 by the action of the gastric juices, aiid in one or two cases clotted. 



Three, contained the horny armatures or beaks of squids only; one 

 of these a single beak, another two beaks, and the third three beaks. 



One, held some pebbles, the ear-bone of a fish (codf), and a few 

 pieces of broken dead shell. 



One, held some pebbles and broken pieces of dead shell, with a single 

 beak of squid. 



One, showed a very small piece of kelp only. 



235. From the large North Kookery on Behring Island, 5th Septem- 

 ber, an adult male or "seacatch," two females, and an unweaned i)up, 

 were driven directly from the rookeiy ground, about 200 yards distant, 

 and killed, by permission of the authorities, for presentation by us as 

 specimens to the British Museum. The stomachs of all four were com- 

 X)letely empty, with the exception of a few worms in those of the three 

 adults. Not only the pup, but the females, and even the old male, were 

 fat and in good condition. 



230. Respecting the j)ebbles frequently found in the stomachs of the- 

 fur-seal, it has been suggested by Mr. Elliott tliat these may be swal- 

 lowed for the purpose of destroying the worms often observed. It has 

 further been suggested that such stones have incidentaly found their 

 way into the seals' stomachs attached to sea-weeds, or zoophytes eaten 

 by the seals; but little can be said in favour of this theory. The habit 

 is one, however, not peculiar to the fur-seal, but common to most pin- 

 nipeds.* The largest of those pebbles actually collected from ther 

 stomachs of the seals above noted as having been killed on St. Paul on 

 the 3rd August, is a fiat stone, 1^ inch in length and 1 inch in breadth, 

 but much larger ones have often been found. It is probable that individ- 

 ual stones do not as a rule remain very long in the stomach; for about 

 one-half of those collected on this occasion were rough scoriaceous 



•"Monograph of North American Pinnipeds," p. 354. 



