REPORT OP BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 87 



(H.) — Age at which the Young Swhn. — Kumher of Young at a Birth. 



298. It lias already been noted, that evidence such as to show that 

 the young' can swim for a time at or immediately after birth, has been 

 obtained from a number of sources, though it is, at the same time, im- 

 probable tliat under any circumstances the young is at first fitted to 

 maintain its existence for any length of time in the open sea. This is, 

 however, not a matter of any great imi)ortance, for it is evidently the 

 normal method for the young to remain for some weeks ashore before 

 venturing even to enter the sea. 



299. It, nevertheless, ap])ears to be quite possible that, under excep- 

 tional cir(;umstances, the female might succeed in rearing her young 

 while only occasionally resorting to the land and while moving from 

 place to place. There is no reason to believe that the fur-seal is less 

 adaptable in this respect than the hair seals, and of one of the latter 

 {Ptoca vituUna) Professor Allen quotes Mr. John Cardeaux to the fol- 

 lowing effect: "The female has one young in the year; and, as these 

 banks [upon which they breed] are covered at flood, the cub, when born, 

 must make an early acquaintance with the water,"* One of the authors 

 of this Keport has, moreover, seen the same species (17th of June, 1878) 

 in the southern ])art of theQueen Charlotte Islaiuls, breeding upon tidal 

 rocks, from which, when alarmed, the mothers took to the sea, each car- 

 rying her young upon her back, tlio heads of the mother and young seal 

 coming to the surface simultaneously at each rise. Upon Indian 

 authority, the same habit has been, as elsewhere noted, observed in 

 the case of the fur-seal. 



300. The date at which the young normally begin to swim has, how- 

 ever, like many others, been given an altogether undue fixity ajul pre- 

 cision. Thus Elliott states that by the 8th or 10th August the pups 

 born nearest to the water first begin to learn to swim ; t and Bryant gives 

 the 20th August as the date at which they first take to the water; % while 

 as early as the 28tli July, in 1891, great numbers of pups were actually 

 observed by us to be swimming along the edges of the rookery grounds 

 and climbing in and out over the rocks, and this in spite of the fact 

 that it is acknowledged that the seals now arrive at the islands at dates 

 later than they did in former years. On the 14th September two pups 

 were even seen swimming and alone at distances of 40 and 70 miles 

 respectively to the westward of the Pribyloff Islands. 



301. As a rule, but a single pup is produced at a birth, and, though 

 this rule is not without exceptions, it may be used in any estimates of 

 the natural rate of increase of the seals. Maynard admits that occa- 

 sional cases of twins have been recognized on the Pribyloff Islands, 

 notwithstanding the difficulty of arriving at certainty as to such a mat- 

 ter under the circumstances which there obtain. The Haidas and the 

 Tshimsians state that they have frequently found two unborn pups in 

 a female seal when killed, though a single pup is much more common. 

 Chief Edensaw, many years ago, saw a female in the act of giving 

 birth on Kose Spit, Queen Charlotte Islands; one pup had been born, 

 and when he killed the mother he found another still unborn. 



302. It is perhaps further worth noting, in this connection, 



54 that those most familiar with the closely allied fur-seal of the 



South African Coast state that, as a rule, two pups are produced 



* "Monograph of North American Pinnipeds," p. 591. 



t United States Census Report, pp. 40, 42, 



X "Monograph of North American Pinnipedg," p, 387. 



