388 EEPORTS OF BERING SEA COMMISSION. 



Yoiins seals back aiicl caiTv them out into the M^ater, much 



dre^d tlie water. 



against the will of the young, and have seen this 

 repeated several times before the young were 

 permitted to land, which they did in a state of 

 great excitement and fatigue. Captain Bryant, 

 who spent many years at the Pribilof Islands 

 as chief Government agent, states: "It seems 

 strange that an animal like this, born to live in 

 the water for the greater portion of its life, should 

 be at first helpless in what seems to be its natural 

 element, yet these young seals if put into it be- 

 fore they are five or six weeks old will drown as 

 quickly as a young chicken. They are somewhat 

 slow, too, in learning to swim, using at first only 

 the fore flippers, carrying the hind ones rigidly 

 extended and partially above water. As soon as 

 they are able to swim (usually about the last 

 week of August) they move from the breeding 

 places on the exposed points and headlands to 

 the coves and bays, where they are sheltered 

 from the heavy surf, and where there are low 

 sand beaches. (Bryant in Allen's Pinnipeds, 

 1880, p. 387.) 



Captain Musgrave, who was shipwrecked on 

 the Auckland Isles for more than a year and a 

 half, has published some important notes respect- 

 ing the sea-lions of those islands. Concerning 

 the young, he states : " It might be suppo'^^d 



