8-i SKAL LIFK OX THK PKIim/>F ISLANDS. 



a large rod;. MM or near which he remains, unless driven olt' by stronger bulls, until 

 August, never h-a ving lor a single install t . night or day. and ta i\ ing neither food nor 

 water. I lei ore the arrival of the females ^called cows) the bulls tight savagely among 

 them.-el\ es toi positions mi tin- n>< >ke,i ies. and many are severely \sounded. All the 

 bulls ale located by .1 Mile I'D. 



5 The piegnant co\\s begin arriving early in June, and soon appear in large 

 schools or dro\ es. immense numbers taking their places on t he rokei ies each day 



bet ween .111 lie 1 L' ai,d t lie . lid of t lie inont 1'.. \ ar\ ing with the \\ eat her. They assem- 

 ble alxuit the old bulls in compact Croups called harems. The harems are complete 

 t-arh in July, at \vhieh time the breeding rookeries attain their maximum si/.e aud 

 compactness 



i r> > I he co\\s give birth to their young soon alter taking their places on the 

 harems. The period of gestation is; between eleven and twelve months. 



(~ A single young is born in each instance. The young at birth are about equally 

 divided as to sex. 



i< x 1 he act of nursing is performed on land; never in the water. It is necessary, 

 therefoi e. tor the cows to remain at the islands until the \oung are weaned, which 

 is \\ hen they are 4 or 5 months old. 



(! |v i The Inr seal is polygamous, and the male is at least three times as large as the 

 .female. Kadi male serves 15 to -5 females. 



<H> C'ojMilatioii takes pi ee on land. Most of the cows are served by the middle 

 of ,)ulv. or soon alter the birth > f their pups. They then take to the water, aud 

 come and go for food while nursing. 



(11) The pups huddle toget her in small groups called pods, at some distance from 

 the water. \Yhcn ti or s weeks old they move down to the water's edge and learn to 

 swim. The pups are not born at sea, and if soon alter birth they are washed into 

 the sea they are drowned. 



d-> The cows are believed to take the bull first when two years old, and deliver 

 their iirst pup when X years old. 



(i:;) 1 nils first take stands on the breeding rookeries when b' or 7 years old. 

 lie': ore this they are not powerful enough to tight the older bulls for positions on the 

 harems. 



11 Cows when nursing, and the nonbreeding seals, regularly travel long dis- 

 tances to feed, 'f hey are commonly found 100 to 150 miles from the islands and 

 sometimes at greater distances. 



A 15 i '1 he food of the fur seal consists of fish, squids, crustaceans, and probably 

 otL'vf forms of marine life aNo. 



(lii i The great majority of cows. pups, aud such of the breeding bulls as have not 

 ah-'adv gone, leave the islands about the middle of No\ ember, the date var\iug 

 considerably with the season. 



il7 The nonbreeding' male seals ( hollusdiickie ). together with a few old bulls, 

 remain until January, and in rare instances even until i ebruary. 



i l- s The i ui seal as a species is present at the Pri bilof Isl mds eight or nine months 

 of t he year, or trom two-iliirds to three-fourths of the time, and in mild winters 

 sometimes during the entire year. The breeding bulls arrive earliest and remain 

 continuously on the islands about four months; the breeding cows remain about 

 nix months, and the nonbreeding male seals about eight or nine months, aud some- 

 times during the ent ire year. 



M-.AI.S KII.I.I'.I) ON T1IK I'KIBII.OF ISLANDS. 



i 1!) The only seals killed for commercial purposes at the seal islands are non- 

 breeding males under 5 or ti \ ears of age. called hollusdiickie . They come up on 

 the rookeries apart from the breeding seals, and large numbers are present by the 

 latter part of May. They constant ly pass back and forth from the water to the 

 'hauling giunds. These animals are driven by the natives (Aleuts) from the haul- 

 ing grounds to t he kill ing grounds, \\ here t hey are divided up into little groups. Those 

 Selected as of suitable si/e are killed with a club by a blow on the head; the others 

 jr into the water and soon reappear on the hauling grounds. In this way about 

 100. ODD young males ha\ e been killed annually on the 1'ribilof Islands for twenty 

 year-. 



( _'D , In add i i ion to the commercial killing a hove described, a number of male pups 

 \vereformerlv killed cadi year to furnish food for the natives, but the killing of 

 jiups i> now prohibited by the t .o\ ei nmeiit . 



The rookerie^ on both St. 1'aul and St. < Jeorge islands bear unmistakable evidence 

 of having undergone great reduction in si/e during the past lew years. This evi- 

 dence, consists i 1 "in the universal testimony of all who saw them at an earlier period, 

 and (2) in the presence upon the back part of cadi rookery of a well-marked strip 



