THE RUSSIAN FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 81 



starving pups died there at ebb tide and their emaciated bodies were thrown up by 

 the risiiif;- tide. It may even be reasonably supposed that these liuiigry pups would 

 atteni])t to keep as close as possible to the water's edge, to beg nourishment of the 

 females lauding. 



On the KJtli of Se])tember I had another chance to inspect the Nortli Kookery. 

 My experience was as follows: 



Very few seals were seen on the rookery, only .a few tliousamls all told; the "sands" were 

 almost entirely deserted, nor were any seals to be observed in the sea. Those on the reef were cows 

 and pups, the majority of the latter now gray. One or two old bnlls were seen and half a dozen 

 large four or five year olds mingling among the females, apparently playing sikatchi. 1 found a great 

 number of dead pujis; there were at least twice as many as on August 22. All, or nearly all, were 

 lying in windrows. Curiously enough, there were no very fresh bodies which might have been killed 

 by the recent northerly swell; all I saw were dead at least oni' week. It was also notable that nearly 

 all were black, only here and there a gray one. 



Alter all, the absence of fresh bodies does not signify inncli. I have no doubt 

 that most of them were eateu or carried off by the blue foxes. Since the decrease in 

 the number of seals killed the natives ou Bering Island have utilized every seal 

 carcass, salting the best i)arts for their own use and putting the rest, iucluding the 

 eutrails, into holes in the ground for winter food for the sledge-dogs. The foxes in 

 the neighborhood of the rookery, instead of fea.sting on the carcasses on the killing 

 grounds and elsewhere, are therefore reduced to nuiking a precarious living out of 

 what they can snatch from the rookery. There being now only a few old seals on land, 

 the foxes and their ycmng, at this time nearly full grown, naturally clean the ground 

 very early every morning of every pup dead during the night. The flock of large .seti 

 gulls [Larna i/ldiicescens), always present on the rookerj', also dispose of many bodies. 

 It is therefore perfectly safe to assert that a great many nuu-e seal pups have died 

 than any census based on the dead bodies present ou the rocjkeries will account for. 



It maybe observed in the present connection that the bodies of even grown seals 

 disintegrate and disappetir with amazing rapidity. The combined efforts of the foxes, 

 the birds, the staphylinid insects, and the fly larva- reduce a carcass in very short 

 order to a skeleton. During the winter the bones become scattered. If they are 

 lying on or near the beach the furious winter surf sweeps them away; if they are 

 farther away the decaying rank vegetation covers them up. During the winter the 

 waves wash over the entire '-reef and the "sands" as well, and not a trace of the 

 starved i)up carcasses will be found on the beaches the next season. 



It is a curious fact that the natives and the kossak iu charge of the rookery were 

 trying to make light of this state of attairs, although the very fact that the latter 

 prevented me from finishing the count is evidence enough that he was aware of it. 

 As mentioned iu the abstract from my diary, he suspected that the great mortality 

 might be charged against management. I have shown that his argument that the 

 pu])s were being trampled to death ou the rookery has no foundation iu fact, but I 

 did not mention, however, his answer to my (|uestion why he thought so. It was to 

 the effect that the flattened condition of the dead pups showed that they had been 

 trampled upon. Now, it is quite true that these half-decomposed bodies present a 

 very much flattened ai)pearaiice, but that is not surprising when we consider the 

 amount of cartilage in their skeleton. Moreover, there is no doubt that they have 

 been tram]>led ui)on, but that took place after they iccrc dead. After I had demon- 

 strated to Selivanof and some of the natives that the pups had died from starvation and 



F. C. B. 1896-6 



