6-S SKALLIFK ON THK PKIH1LOF ISLANDS. 



!!!.">. In order to exhibit tin- circumstances surrounding this fact ami to arrive at a 

 probable explanation ol' its true nieaninu, it \vill lie necessary in tin- tirst instance 

 ti> give in snnmiari/ed form the observations and nt-> bearing upon it made on the 



ground by ollfsel \ t's. 



:;iti. \\lieii visiting Tolstoi rookery, St. Paul Island, on the L'lUh ol' July, we 

 observed and called attention to several hundred dead pup* which lay scattered 

 about in a limited area on a sinooi h slope near the northern <>r in'and end of the 

 rookery ground and at .some little distance from the shore. 'I he bodies were partly 

 decomposed and appeared to have lain \vhere loiind lor a week or more, which would 

 place the actual date of the death of the pups. say. between the K>th and L'Oth of 

 July. Neither the (iovernnient agent who was with us. nor the natives forming our 

 boat's crew at the rime, would at first believe that the objects seen on the rookery 

 were dead pups, a fti rming that they were st ones : but when it became c lea rl v apparent 

 that this was not tlie case they could slimiest as causes of death onlv overrunning 

 Ity bulls or surf alonu the shore, neither one of w hich appeared to us at the time to 

 lie satisfactory. Mi-. 1 >. \Yehster. interrogated on the subject some days later on 

 >t (icniiif Island, offered merely the same suggestions, but a few davs still later, 

 both whites and natives mi the islands were found to have developed quite other 

 opinions and to be ready to attribute the deaths to the operations of pelagic sealers 

 killing mothers while off at sea and leading to the death of pups from starvation 

 consequent on such kilJinn'. 



,'! 17. Pel iev iug the mat ter to be one of considerable importance, however, it mi^lit 

 l>e e\]ilained. particular attention was paid to it on subsequent visits to rookeries. 

 < >n the Illst of .1 uly and the 1st of August the rookeries of M . ( ieor^e were inspected, 

 but no similar appearances were found, nor was anything of the. same kind again 

 seen till the 1th of August, on I'olavina rookery, St. Paul Island, where, near the 

 southern extremity of the rookery, several hundred dead pups wen- again found by 

 us, here also covering an area of limited si/.e, which we were able to examine care- 

 fully without disturbing t he breeding seals. It was estimated that the pups here 

 found had died bet ween ten days and t wo weeks before, vv hich would place the actual 

 date of death at about the same time with that of those first referred to. 



3-1*. < Mi the following day the extensive rookeries of Northeast Point were visited 

 and examined, but very few dead pups were anv where seen. Mr. Fowler, in charge 

 of these rookeries for the company, was specially questioned on this point, and fully 

 confirmed the negative observations made by ourselves at the time. It may here 

 be mentioned that the vicinity of Northeast Point had been the principal and only 

 notable locality from whi h, up to this date, sealing vessels had been sighted in the 

 ofling or had been reported as shooting seals within hearing of the shore. 



:>!!. < Mi the ll'th of August, after a cruise to the northward of about a fortnight's 

 duration, we returned to St. Paul and on the same day revisited Tolstoi rookery. 

 On this occasion the dead pups previously noted were st ill to be seen, but the bodies 

 were flattened out and more or less covered with sand by the continuous movement 

 of the living seals. There were, however, on and near the same place, and particu- 

 larly near the angle between Tolstoi rookery and the sands of English Hay, many 

 more dead pups, larger in si/.e than those first noted and scarcely distinguishable in 

 this respect from the living pups, "which were then ''podded out" in great numbers 

 in the immediate neighborhood. Messrs. Fowler and Murray, who accompanied us 

 on this occasion, admitted the mortality to be local, and the first-named gentleman 

 stated that in his long experience he had never seen anv thing of the kind before, and 

 suggested that the mothers from this special locality mi.uht have gone to some par- 

 ticular "feeding bank" and have there been killed together by sea sealers. On the 

 same day we visited the Keel' rookery auain. and a search was made there for dead 

 pups, which resulted in the discovery of some of approximately the same si/e with 

 those last mentioned, but probably not more than an eighth, and certainly not more 

 than one-fourth in number as compared with the inner end of the Tolstoi rookery 

 ground, and proportionately in both cases to the number of living pups. 



.';.">(). While making a third inspection of the St. Paul rookeries in September, on 

 the ].">th of that month, the Reef and Northeast Point rookeries were again specially 

 examined. 'I he rookery -round of the southeastern side of the Keef Point was 

 can-hilly inspected, area by area, with field glasses, from the various rocky points 

 wh'p h overlook it, and from which the whole field is visible in detail save certain 

 narrow, stony slopes close to the sea edge, where dead pups mi^ht have been hidden 

 from view auion>_ r the bowlders. Subsequently, the northeastern sloping ground, 

 named ( ,;i i botch on t he plans, being a! t hat da t c merely occupied by scat tered groups 

 of sea Is. w'as wa 1 ked over. The result of the inspect ion was to show that there were? 

 on the -out beast --ide a few do/en dead pups at the most in sighi . while on the oppo- 

 site side perhaps a hundred in all were found in the area gone over, being, probably, 

 the -a me with i ho-e -ecu here the prev ions mom h, and in number or contiguity not 

 in any way comparable with those seen at the inner end of Tolstoi. 



I'ifil. On the same day a final visit was made to the Northeast Point rookeries, then 

 in charge, of three natives only. Two of these men went over the ground with us 



