SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLAJs 7 DS. 69 



and were questioned on various subjects, including that of dead pups, through our 

 Aleut interpreter. They would not admit that they had seen any grout number of 

 dead pups on the northeast part this season, and did not seem to be in any way 

 impressed \\itli tin- id-a thai then- had been any unusual mortality there. The 

 ground to the north of llutchinsou Hill was, however, carefully examined by us 

 from the slopes of the hill, and a few dead pups were made out there. Again, at a 

 place to the north of Sea Lion Neck of the plans, and beyond the sand beach upon 

 which holluschiokie generally haul out, a slow advance was made among a large 

 herd of females and pups, though part of these were necessarily driven off the 

 ground in so doing. An occupied area of rookery was thus walked over, and the 

 dead pups which appeared at this spot to be unusually abundant were counted with 

 approximate accuracy. A very lew were found scattered over the general surface, 

 but on approaching the shore edge an area of about 20,000 square feet was noted, in 

 which about KM) dead pups were assembled. Some of these lay within reach of the 

 surf at high tide. Most appeared to have been dead for at least ten days, and sev- 

 eral were broken up and mangled by the movement of the living seals on and about 

 them. This particular locality showed a greater number of dead pups to area than 

 any other seen at this time either on the Northeast or Reef rookeries, but in number 

 in no respect comparable to that previously noted at Tolstoi, or even to that on the 

 south part of Polavina. 



352. We were informed on this our last visit to the Pribilof Islands that subse- 

 quent to our discovery of and comments upon the dead pups at the two last-mentioned 

 places, the attention of Mr. ,J. Stanley Brown (who was engaged during the summer 

 in making a special examination of the rookeries for the United States Government) 

 was called to the circumstance, and that he undertook some further examination of 

 it, of which the result will no doubt eventually be rendered available. Dr. Acland, 

 who had .just been installed as medical officer on St. Paul, also told us that he had, 

 within a few days, examined the bodies of six of the pups from Tolstoi, and that 

 though rather too much decomposed for correct autopsy, he had been unable to find 

 any signs of disease, but that all these examined were very thin and without food in 

 the stomachs. 



353. It may be noted here that the carcasses thus examined must have been those 

 of pups which had died in the mouth of September, or when no sealing schooners 

 remained in Bering Sea. 



354. The body of a pup found by us on the Northeast rookery on the 5th of August, 

 -which was still undecomposed, was preserved in alcohol, and has since been sub- 

 mitted to Dr. A. Gunther, F. R. S., of the British Museum, who kindly ottered to 

 make an examination of it. This is quoted at length in Appendix (D). The stom- 

 ach was found to contain no food. The body was well nourished, with a fair amount 

 of fat in the subcutaneous tissue, but no fat about the abdominal organs. The 

 lungs and windpipe were found in an inflammatory condition. Respecting the actual 

 cause of death, Dr. Gunther says: "Both the absence of food as well as the condi- 

 tion of the respiratory organs are sufficient to account for the death of the animal; 

 but which of the two was the primary cause, preceding the other, it is impossible 

 to say." 



355. It would be inappropriate here to enter into any lengthened discussion of the 

 bearings of the above facts on the methods of sealing at sea; but as, after the ten- 

 tative adoption of various hypotheses, the mortality of the young seals was with a 

 remarkable unanimity attributed to pelagic sealing by the gentlemen in any way 

 connected with the breeding islands, and as it has since been widely and consistently 

 advertised in the press as a further and striking proof of the destrnctiveness of pela- 

 gic sealing, it may be permissible to allude to a few cogent reasons, because of 

 which the subject seems at least to require consideration of a much more careful and 

 searching kind : 



(1) The death of so many young seals on the islands in 1891 was wholly excep- 

 tional and unprecedented, and it occurred in the very season during which, in 

 accordance with the modus vivendi, every effort was being made to drive all pelagic 

 sealers from Bering Sea. Those familiar with the islands were evidently puzzled 

 and surprised when their attention was first drawn to it, and were for some time in 

 doubt as to what cause it might be attributed. 



(2) The explanation at length very unanimously concurred in by them, viz, that 

 the young had died because their mothers had been killed at sea, rests wholly upon 

 the assumption that each female will suckle only its own young one, an assumption 

 which appears to be at least very doubtful, and which has already been discussed. 



(3) The mortality was at first local, and though later a certain number of dead 

 pups were found on various rookeries examined, nothing of a character comparable 

 with that on Tolstoi rookery was discovered. 



(4) The mortality first observed on Tolstoi and Polavina was at too early a date 

 to enable it to be reasonably explained by the killing of mothers at sea. It occurred, 

 as already explained, about the 15th or 20th of July, at a time at which, according 

 to the generally accepted dates as well as our own observations in 1891, the females 



