70 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



fragments, showing little or no sign of attritiou. The other moiety 

 was more or less perfectly rounded, and a certain number showed a 

 peculiar fine i)olish, probably to be attributed to wear in the stomach 

 of the animal. About one-seventh of the entire number represent 

 rocks not found on the Pribylolf Islands, or, if occurring at all, only 

 very exceptionally as erratics carried there attached to the roots of 

 drift trees or kelp, or brought ui)oii floating ice. These have, in all 

 probability, been borne by the seals themselves from some distant 

 localities. The remaining and much the larger part of the collection 

 consists of ordinary volcanic pebbles, such as might be picked up any- 

 where on the beaches of the Pribyloff or the Aleutian Islands. 

 41 237. The Aleut forenuin in charge of the rookeries on Behring 



Island stated that the young seals began to swallow pebbles 

 when about four months old, after which they become thin. If correct, 

 this statement would api)ear to mean that it is about the time at which 

 the young are weaned that this habit is first developed. He also said 

 that, when seals of mature age were observed to swallow stones, they 

 Avere (or became) thin, and this may possibly be regarded rather as the 

 effect of the gastric worms than of the pebbles. The same man added, 

 and entirely as an idea original with himself, that when the seals first- 

 arrived at the Commander Islands each year, they contained stones 

 unlike those to be found upon the islands, and Avhich he conjectured 

 had been picked up ui)on the Kamtschatka coast. In the stomach of 

 the seal pup examined for us by Dr. Giinther at the British Museum, 

 it will be noted that a stone was found, although the pup was supposed 

 to be about seventeen days old only. (Ai)pendix D.) 



238. On several of the rookery- and hauling-grounds of the Pribyloff 

 Islands there is to be seen a notable abundance of small rounded i)eb- 

 bles, just such as those found in the stomachs of the seals. As these 

 lie upon the surface, often far above any possible action of the sea, and 

 as there is no evidence of beaches of such rolled stones due to former 

 periods of greater submergence upon the Pribyloff Islands, the con- 

 jecture apiiears to be legitimate that these have, in the course of years, 

 been brought and accumulated by the seals themselves. Whether 

 voided or disgorged from time to time ui^on the rookery grounds, or 

 whether accumulated by a slower process consequent on the occasional 

 death of seals upon these grounds, cannot be decided. The suggestion 

 here made, it should be stated, is due to Mr. J. Stanley-Brown. 



239. The blood noticed in some of the stomachs may probably be 

 attributed to the laceration of the tongue by the teeth, or to congestion 

 and extravasation of the nasal membranes brought about by the severe 

 ordeal of driving. Its presence in the alimentary tract is at least 

 scarcely exi)licable as the result of internal lesions. 



240. In the middle of September, when ]iaying a last visit to the 

 Pribyloff Islands, several of the young seals of the same year, then 

 well grown, were observed upon water-washed rocks, either ])laying 

 with or eating fronds of kelp. Mr. J. C. Kedpath stated that he 

 believed the seals actually ate the kel]) as a part of their food, but from 

 ])ersonal observation no statement could be made to this effect, and it 

 is considered very doubtful. 



241. Colonel J. Murray informed us that, in 1890, the young seals o^ 

 pu])s killed as food for natives on the Pribyloff Islands about the 4th 

 and 8th November, had not even at that date been weaned, but were 

 found full of milk. He further stated, that such pups had been driven 

 in the very early niorning to the killing grounds, and sometimes not 

 killed till late iu the evening, thus insuring a period of at least fifteen 



