72 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



come on shore to bring forth their young, and remain to the end of 

 September without stirring from the spot, and without taking auy kind 

 of nourishment." * 



Though not at the time aware of Bryant's statement, above quoted, 

 the absence of excrementitious matter was one of the first points noted 

 and remarked on by us after hmding upon the Pribyloflt" rookeries, and 

 it is to tlie absence of such matter alone that the continuous herding 

 together on one spot for several months of so many thousand animals is 

 on sanitary grounds rendered possible. It became obvious that so soon 

 as the seals commence again to feed, it must be absolutely necessary for 

 them to abandon their crowded quarters on shore. The evidence thus 

 afibrded, that the females do not feed to any notable extent until the 

 young are practically weaned, or, at all events, until very late in the 

 suckling season, is perhaps more definite than that given in any other 

 way. 



(0.) — Physical Characteristics of the Pribyloff and Commander Islands, 

 and Nature of the Breeding Grounds. 



244. The principal breeding places of the fur seal of the North Pacific 

 at the present time, are the Pribyloff and Commander Islands, and, 

 omitting certain exceptional periods dependent chiefly on the interrup- 

 tion of natural conditions brought about by the slaughter of seals, it 

 ai)pears that the Pribylofit' Islands have, within historic times, been fre- 

 quented by larger numbers of seals than the Commander Islands. 

 Eecent changes, depending chiefly on the circumstances which have 

 occurred in the first-named islands, have, however, at the present time, 

 produced a nearer approach to equality in numbers as between the two 

 groups of islands than has been normal. Of other breeding j)laces in 

 the North Pacific still known to be frequented by smaller numbers of 

 seals, liobben Island is the most important, but of these some notes are 

 given later. 



245. While it has not been disproved that the fur-seal may bring forth 

 its young upon detached floating masses of the great kelp of the Pacific, 

 particularly in cases where the gravid female has been prevented from 

 reaching the breeding places on shore in due time, such instan<;es, if 

 they occur, must be quite exceptional.. As to the alleged birth of young 

 at sea, the result of careful inquiries of various kinds shows that if this 

 should occur without the presence of any resting place, the young prob- 

 ably perish, for, though undoubtedly capable at birth, and even if cut 

 from the mother before birth, of swimming for a shorter or longer time, 

 the young is not suited at once for a pelagic existence, and authentic 

 instances in which females with recently-born young have been seen at 

 sea are very rare. It may be mentioned here, however, that some of 

 the Indians of the northern part of the coast of British Columbia aver 

 that they have seen the female fur-seal swimming with its young on its 

 back in the manner said to be practised by the sea-otter, and actually 

 observed in the case of the hair-seal, but this statement has not been 

 fully authenticated. 



240. The normal habits of the fur-seal are such as to require a 

 43 safe terrestrial retreat at the season during which the young is 

 born, where the young may remain undisturbed for a x)eriod of 

 three or i)ossibly four months, or till such time as they may be able to 

 assume the pelagic habits of the adult. It is therefore primarily for 

 the purpose of giving birth to their young and suckling them that the 

 female fur-seals seek the breeding islands. At other seasons they do 



* Quoted in United States Census Report, p. 122. 



