110 EEPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



to believe that the ground had been at no time thickly or very continu- 

 ously frequented by seals to this limit. The nearly straight shore-line 

 running eastward from Hutchinson Hill is almost, or practically quite, 

 continuously occupied by breeding-seals, though these occupy a much 

 greater width in some places than in others. As early as the 5th 

 August, 1891, it was observable from Hutchinson Hill, iu connection 

 with the geiieral change in the rookeries at about this date, that con- 

 siderable bodies of seals had worked back in three places quite to the 

 margin of the "grass limit," and in a fourth had almost reached this 

 limit. In thus working inland, the respective bodies of seals had formed 

 four "bays," gradually narrowing tow^ard the inner ends, where the 

 greater number of seals were at the time gathered, but of which the 

 limits w^ere quite distinctly marked by the llattening down and partial 

 disappearance of the short grass, and the fact that mud and sand had 

 been drawn over it by the restless movement of the seals. This observa- 

 tion alone was sufficient to indicate that even the present number of 

 seals might naturally, in the course of a few years, w^ork over every part 

 of the territory on the seaward side of the general "grass limit," and 

 that this limit might thus be perennially maintained. 



391. When the same part of the North-East Eookery was re-examined 

 in the middle of September, though there were still some large "pods" 

 of seals scattered out as far as the " grass limit," the arrangement above 

 described had partly broken up, and the "bays" were not so distinctly 

 outlined, as recent rains had washed and partly revived the seal- 

 trodden grass by which they had previously been marked out. The 

 seals occupying the "bay" nearest to the base of the hill had, however, 

 moved still further back, and were actually in occupation to the num- 

 ber of 2,000, or thereabouts, of an area of the longer and tussocky grass 

 to the rear of the general "grass limit." At the same date, near the 

 western base of the long slope of Hutchinson Hill, a considerable area 

 of the shorter turf on the seaward side of the "grass limit" was found 

 to show obvious traces of having been occupied by a large number of 

 seals for some days at least, though they had subsequently abandoned 

 it for some other locality. Here, again, one corner of the area thus 

 marked out by recent occupation overpassed the " grass limit," and cov- 

 ered a superficies estimated at about 50,000 square feet of the long tus- 

 socky grass, which showed no sign of previous occupation by seals. 

 The shorter grass had naturally suffered more than the longer, being 

 flattened down, x)artially worn off", and ijressed into the mud. The 

 longer grass in the course of a year will probably show no trace of its 

 occupation. 



392. Passing now to several changes of the same general character 

 noted on the Keef Eookery : As early as the 18th August, not only was 

 a larger number of seals than before observed (mostly holluschickie) 

 seen hauled out on the outer part of Zoltoi sands, at the inner end of 

 Eeef Point, but they were also scattered in considerable numbers far 

 back on the hill. There were in all probably about 3,000 seals here at 

 this time, and one-half of them were estimated to be "killable" seals. 

 On the 15th September large droves of seals were resting or travelling 

 about all parts of the bare "jiarade ground" between the Eeef and 

 Gorbotch rookeries, which had on previous visits, six weeks and nine 

 weeks before respectively, been but scantily occui)ied, and which, if 

 noted only in the earlier part of the season, would have been charac- 

 terized as an area iDractically abandoned by seals. The only notable 

 exception to this occupation was the grassy flat to the southwest of 

 " Fox Hill," which for some reason was not frequented, and shows little 



