AMPHIBIOUS COMBATS. 193 



from diseases, and more seldom have seen young 

 elk, and on two occasions, young mountain 

 sheep, dead, for whose taking off there seemed 

 to be no reason to be advanced except sickness. 

 It is well known that on the fur seal islands of 

 the North Pacific and the Bering Sea, thous- 

 ands of pups die annually from disease, in addi- 

 tion to the vastly greater number which starve 

 to death through the killing of the mothers by 

 pelagic sealing. 



The Sun account above referred to reads as 

 follows : , 



Captains Wisner, Verity and Ira Udall, who 

 have been across the bay to Fire Island beach, 

 arrived here to-day. They say that two deer, one 

 a fine large six-year-old buck and the other a 

 doe, had walked out on the ice and had broken 

 through. They had been unable to get back to 

 the mainland and were carried with the cur- 

 rent. They drifted across the bay a distance of 

 nearly ten miles and were being taken out into 

 the ocean when seen by Captains Udall and 

 Verity from the State wharf east of the light- 

 house. 



The two men put off in a lifeboat and suc- 

 ceeded in driving the buck ashore. The doe 

 was almost dead by that time. Every effort was 

 made to get her ashore and save her life. A 



13 



