162 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



the seal, the proportion thus started probably more than represents the 

 ratio of seals so slightly wounded as to reach and live on the islands 

 in apparent health. 



629. It appears to have been very generally taken for granted, on it 

 priori grounds, by most of the apologists for the methods of laud kill- 

 ing, that the fur-seal does and must sink immediately when shot at sea. 

 Actual experience contradicts this assumption in the manner and to 

 the degree explained above, and it is, therefore, useless to enter at 

 length into the question of the analogy of the fur-seal with other ani- 

 mals ill this respect, which has been advanced to show that the fur-seal 

 should not float. Arguments of this kind have been derived particu- 

 larly from the circumstance that the various species of hair-seal often 

 sink when shot before they can be recovered. It must not be forgotten, 

 however, that the hair-seal belongs to an entirely different group of the 

 Pinnipedia, and is characterized not only by a much heavier osseous 

 framework, but also by a smaller lung capacity in proportion to its 

 weight. Yet even the hair-seal is often shot and secured at sea, where 

 its pursuit is made an industry, and it is only when exceptionally lean 

 that it sinks rapidly. 



630. The following notes bearing on this particular subject may be 

 quoted from Mr. J. A. Allen's "Monograph of North American Pinni- 

 peds," which has already been frequently referred to: 



" Like other species of the seal family, the harbour seal is very tenacious of life, 

 and must be struck in a vital part by eitber ball or heavy shot, in order to kill it on 

 the spot." Says Air. Keeks: " I have been often amused at published accounts of 

 seals shot in the Thames or elsewhere, but which "sank immediately." What seal 

 or other amphibious animal would not do so if "tickled" with the greater part of, 

 perhaps, an ounce of No. .5 shot? He adds that it is only in the spring of the year 

 that this seal will "float" wlien killed in the water, but says that he has never seen 

 a seal "so poor, which, if killed dead on the spot, would not have floated from live to 

 ten seconds," or loug enough to give "ample time for towiug alongside," .supposing 

 the animal to have been killed by shot, and the boat to contain "two hands." 



Again, referring to the bearded seal, Mr. Allen quotes Kumlien, as 

 follows : 



In July, during the moulting time, their stomachs contained nothing but stones, 

 some of them nearly of a quarter-pound weight. They seem to eat nothing during 

 the entire time of shedding — i^robably six weeks. Certain it is they lose all their 

 blubber, and by the middle of July have nothing but " white-horse " — a tough, white, 

 somewluit cartilaginous substance, in place of blubber. At this season they sink 

 when shot. 



631. No loss occurs at sea from the taking of seals with "stagey" or 

 unmerchantable skins. All those familiar with pelagic sealing who were 

 questioned upon this point agreed as to the fact that "stagey" skins 

 are practically never got at sea, not even in Behriiig Sea at the season 

 at which the seals upon the islands are distinctly "stagey." The skins 

 taken in the earliest part of the sealing season, in December and Jan- 

 uary, are sometimes rather inferior, but they do not fall into the general 

 category of "stagey" skins. 



632. It would thus appear that the distinctly " stagey" or " shedding" 

 condition of the fur-seal supervenes after a sojourn of some 



109 length on shore, and that such sojourn results in a general change 

 of pelage which does not occur in the same marked way when 

 the animals remain at sea. Tiie same circumstance has further some 

 bearing on the question of the possible excursions of the seals from the 

 breeding islands, and on the iuterchangeability of the seals remaining 

 on or about the islands with those of the general sea-surface, which 

 thus seems to be exceptional, during at least the later summer and 

 early autumn, which is the "stagey" season asho/e. 



