THE SWIMMING PUPS. 69 



When it is about a mouth old the pup seeks the water's edge, and after paddling 

 about for a time in the tide pools gradually learns to swim. This art, in which it 

 becomes wonderfully expert, it finds evident difficulty in acquiring. 



THE SWIMMING OF THE PUPS. 



Many accounts have been given of the way in which various classes of animals are 

 supposed to assist the pups in learning to swim. If these have any foundation 

 whatever it arises from a misinterpretation of the fact that the young bachelors, and 

 probably the yearling cows as well, play with and tease the pups in their first 

 attempts to swim. Bachelors were thus often seen to shove the little pups off the 

 rocks into the water, or even to attempt to catch and duck them. But the purpose 

 was not to assist the pups. 



What first starts the pup to the water is not clear, though why any other reason 

 than the mere fact that it must eventually learn to swim and that the water is at 

 hand, should be necessary, is not clear. It may be that the first pups seek the water 

 following the example of the departing cows. But, once a single pup has made the 

 experiment, every pup in its section of the rookery soon follows the example. 



The pup seeks first the secluded and protected tide pools, of which numbers can 

 be found along the rookery fronts. Here it paddles about, gradually seeking the open 

 water, but keeping close to the shore. Its chief difficulty at tbe outset is to keep its 

 disproportionately large head above water. In a very short time it becomes perfectly 

 at home in the water and spends most of the daytime in it. As the pups are accus- 

 tomed to play on shore, so they play in the water, rolling over and over each other, 

 diving for shells, shaking strips of kelp, pieces of sticks, feathers, or anything that 

 comes to hand, just as young dogs might. 



THE EXCURSIONS OF THE PUPS. 



By the middle of September, when the pups have learned to swim well, they sud- 

 denly develop a roving spirit and pass back and forth between neighboring rookeries, 

 and there is a continuous band of pups coming and going between them. Thus, such 

 a belt of pups was found in the early part of September to extend from Kitovi rookery 

 past East Lauding to Eeef rookery, nearly a mile distant. Another followed around 

 the cliffs back of the village connecting Gorbatch with Lagoon. Lagoon was in like 

 manner connected with Tolstoi head, and a band of pups stretched on along the water 

 front of English Bay, uniting Tolstoi and t'.-e Zapadnis. 



At certain points intermediate between these terminals, the pups hauled out in 

 groups of varying sizes and slept on the rocks, apparently remaining there for days 

 and days at a time. But after the pups were branded on Kitovi rookery, observa- 

 tions on a pod of these pups hauled out under Black Bluff showed that while the 

 number in these distant places remained nearly constant, the individuals came and 

 went regularly. The pups doubtless returned to the rookery to meet their mothers, 

 timing their visits with her return. 



Toward the close of the month of September these excursions of the pups ceased 

 as suddenly as they began, and the pups remained about their respective rookeries 

 and in the waters adjacent to them, sleeping on shore when hungry, sleeping and 

 playing in the water when full of milk. 



