THE COWS. 119 



The ffreat distance of the feeding grounds from Speed in swim- 



ming. 



the islands is not remarkable, as the seals are 

 very rapid swimmers and possess great endur- 

 ance/ Thomas Mowat, esq., inspector of fish- 

 eries for British Columbia, in the annual report 

 of the Department of Fisheries of the Dominion 

 of Canada (1886), at page 267, makes the fol- 

 lowing statement, which corroborates the fore- 

 going: "Capt. Donald McLean, one of our most 

 successful sealing captains, and one of the first 

 to enter into the business of tracking seals from 

 California to Bering Sea, informs me he has known 

 bands of seals to travel one hundred to two 

 liundred miles a day, feeding and sleeping during 

 a portion of this time." Capt. Bryant, with long 

 experience as master mariner of a whaling vessel, 

 states that he is convinced that a seal can swim 

 more rapidly than any species of fish, and that 

 a female could leave the islands, go to the fishing 

 grounds a hundred miles distant and easily 

 return the same day.^ But in case these excur- 

 sions consumed a longer time, the peculiar phys- 

 ical economy of the pup seal makes it possible 

 for it to exist several days without nourishment.^ 



The length of time that a pup is dependent .^Departure from 

 upon its mother, as heretofore stated, compels 



1 Charles Bryant, Vol. II, p. 6; W. S. Hereford, Vol. II, p. 35. 



2 Vol. II, p. 6. 



3W. S. Hereford, Vol. II, p. 33; H. H. Mclntyre, Vol. II, p. 41. 



