SEAL LIFE OX THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 77 



ping 011 the carcasses. The great mass of dead in all cases was within a short dis- 

 tance of the water's edge. The patches of dead would commence at the water's edge 

 and stretch iu a wide swath up into the rookery. Among the immense masses of 

 dead were seldom to be found the carcasses of full-grown seals, but the carcasses 

 were those of pups, or young seals born that year. 1 can give no idea of the exact 

 number of dead, but I believe that they could only be numbered by the thousands 

 on each rookery. Along the water's edge and scattered among the dead were quite 

 a number of live pups, which were iu an emaciated condition. Many had hardly the 

 strength to drag themselves out of one's way ; thus contrasting strongly, both in 

 appearance and actions, with the plump condition and active, aggressive conduct of 

 the healthy appearing pups. (J. C. S. Akerly, M. L>., resident physician.) 



In the latter part of July, 1891, my attention was called to a source of waste, the 

 efficiency of which was most startlingly illustrated. In my conversations with the 

 natives I had learned that dead pups had been seen upon the rookeries in the past 

 few years in such numbers as to cause much concern. In the middle of July they 

 pointed out to me here and there dead pups and others so weak and emaciated that 

 their death was but a matter of a few days. By the time the British commissioners 

 arrived the dead pups were in sufficient abundance to attract their attention, and 

 they are, I believe, under the impression that they first discovered them. 



By the latter part of August deaths were rare, the mortality having practically 

 ceased. An examination of the warning lists of the combined lleets of British and 

 American cruisers will show that before the middle of August the last sealing 

 schooner was sent out of Bering Sea. These vessels had entered the sea about July 

 1 and had done much effective work by July 15. The mortality among the pups and 

 its cessation is synchronous with the sealing fleet's arrival and departure from Bering 

 Sea. 



There are several of the rookeries upon which level areas are so disposed as to be 

 seen by the eye at a glance. In September Dr. Akerly and I walked directly across 

 the rookery of Tolstoi, St. Paul, and in addition to the dead pups in sight, they lay 

 in groups of from three to a dozen among the obscuring rocks on the hillside. From 

 a careful examination of every rookery upon the two islands made by me in August 

 and September, I place the minimum estimate of the dead pups to be 15,000, and that 

 some number between that and 30,000 would represent more nearly a true statement 

 of the facts. (J. Stanley-Brown, Treasury agent, 1891-92.) 



No mention was ever made of any unusual number of dead pups upon the rookeries 

 having been noticed at any time prior to my visit in 1870, but when I again visited the 

 islands in 1890, I found it a subject of much solicitude by those interested in the per- 

 petuation, and in 1891 it had assumed such proportions as to cause serious alarm. 

 The natives making the drives first discovered this trouble, then special agents took 

 note, and later on 1 think almost everyone who was allowed to visit the rookeries 

 could not close their eyes or nostrils to the great numbers of dead pups to be seen on 

 all sides. In company with Special Agent Murray, Captain Hooper, and Engineer 

 Brerton, of the Corwin, I visited the Reef and Garbotch rookeries, St. Paul Island, in 

 August, 1891, and saw one of the most pitiable sights that I have ever witnessed. 

 Thousands of dead and dying pups were scattered over the rookeries, while the shores 

 were lined with emaciated, hungry little fellows, with their eyes turned toward the 

 sea uttering plaintive cries for their mothers, which were destined never to return. 

 Numbers of them were opened, their stomachs examined, and the fact revealed that 

 starvation was the cause of death, no organic disease being apparent. (W. C. Coul- 

 son, captain, revenue marine. 



The schooners increased every year from the time I first noticed them, until in 1884 

 there was a licet of 20 or 30, and then I began to see more and more dead pups on 

 the rookeries, until in 1891 the fleet of sealing schooners numbered more than 100 

 and the rookeries were covered with dead pups. (John Fratis.) 



It was during these years that dead, emaciated pups were first noticed on the rook- 

 eries, and they increased in numbers until 1891, in which year, in August and Sep- 

 tember, the rookeries were covered with dead pups. (Edward Hughes, employee of 



lessees, 1888-1894.) 



On the 19th of August, 1891, I saw the young pups lying dead upon the rookeries 

 of St. Paul, and I estimated their number to be not less than 30,000; and they had 

 died from starvation, their mothers having been killed at the feeding grounds by 

 pelagic hunters. (Joseph Murray, Treasury agent, 1889-1894.) 



Q. Have you noticed any dead pups on the rookeries this past season, and in what 

 proportion to former years? A. 1 have seen an unusual number of dead pups this 

 year on the hreedinsr grounds ; I may say twice as many as formerly. ( J. C. Redpath, 

 lessees' agent, 1875^1894.) 



