82 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



not from any injuries received, there was evidently a load taken oft' tbeir liearts, and 

 lamentations over the great number ot dead pups were heard all around. I mention 

 this incident chierty to show how little dependence can be placed upon the obser- 

 vations made by the natives, and more particularly upon their deductions, or the 

 explanations they see fit to make. 



From the above it may be regarded as well established that during the past 

 season an unusual mortality took place among the seal [)Ui)S on Bering Island, and that 

 they died of starvation. There seems but one reasonable explanation of this phenoni 

 enon, viz, that they starved because their mothers were killed, and as they were not 

 killed on the island there seems to be no other logical conclusion but to assume that 

 they were killed by the pelagic sealers. 



ALLEGED CHANGES OF HABITS. 



During the recent discussions relative to the habits of the fur-seals and to the 

 seal fisheries, it has been asserted by various persons that the habits of the seals have 

 undergone, or are undergoing, material changes. Curiously enough, such changes 

 have been alleged by both sides, but while one side attributes certain alleged 

 changes to the disturbance of the seals on the rookeries, the other side insists that 

 certain other alleged changes are due to the interference of the pelagic sealers. 



It must not be forgotten that the habits of the fur-seals at the present time are 

 the result of a long evolution, which dates back possibly millions of years. The 

 habits of the North Pacific and South Pacific seals in most essential points are alike, 

 and as these seals belong to very distinct species it is practically certain that these 

 habits were formed before these species had emerged from the common ancestral 

 stock. This separation probably dates back to the time when the North Pacific seals 

 became geographically shut oft" from intermingling with the southern forms. From 

 that early period the difterentiution of the local habits of the former must have gone 

 on for ages, until now there is inborn in every seal an instinct which is the inherited 

 accumulation of the doings of tens of thousands of generations repeated every year. 



It must, moreover, be borne in mind that the fur-seals are gregarious animals. 

 Such animals always act in flocks ; their habits are the habits of the flock. Individual 

 deviation from the habits inborn does not materially affect the habits of the whole 

 community. To eftect a change in the habits of such a species it would be necessary 

 not only that the bulk of each yearly class should change their habits in the same 

 way, but also that the causes should continue long enough to allow the change to be 

 transmitted to the oftspring through an unknown number of generations. This is 

 particularly true where, as in the present case, the disturbing causes mainly aft'cct 

 the male sex. 



The first detailed description of the habits of the northern fur-seal, after Steller's 

 account, is, as I have shown (p. <i()), by Yeniaminof in 183fl. The next by Itryant 

 (1870) and Elliott (1874). No change of habits is alleged up to that time. In fiict, 

 these changes are supposed to have taken i>lace during the last five to ten years. 



The theoretical considerations presented above have not been submitted with any 

 intention of overriding by a priori reasoning any statement of alleged facts, though 

 it is believed that its soundness is unassailable. It is only my intention to show the 

 utter improbability of any change of habits within the short period in which man has 

 interfered with the fur-seal in order to demand strong jiroof in support of the alleged 



