140 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



or two transient visitors, but it only needed a thorough investigation of 

 the condition of the rookeries to convince the most skeptical that there 

 were plenty of bulls, and to spare, and that hardly a cow could be found 

 on the rookeries without a pup at her side. 



For five years I have given this particular subject my most earnest 

 attention, and every succeeding year's experience has convinced me 

 that there is not, and never was, a dearth of bulls. The theory of 

 impotency of the young bulls because of overdriving when young is 

 not worthy of consideration by any sane or honest man who has ever 

 seen a bull seal on a breeding rookery; and as I have already answered 

 the question of overdriving, I will only add here that no young bull 

 goes upon a breeding rookery until he is able to fight his way in, and 

 an impotent bull has no desire to tight, nor could he win a position on 

 the rookery were he to attempt it. The man is not alive who ever saw 

 a 6 or 7 year old bull seal impotent. 



Another theory, equally untrue, was that an epidemic had seized the 

 herd, but investigations of the closest kind have never revealed the 

 death on the islands of a full-grown seal from unknown causes. Let it 

 be remembered that the flesh of the seal is the staple diet of the natives, 

 and that it is eaten daily by most of the white employees as well; and 

 yet it is true that a sign of taint or disease has never been found on a 

 seal carcass in the memory of man. It was not until so many thousands 

 of dead pups were found upon the rookeries that the problem was solved. 



The truth is that when the cows go out to the feeding grounds to feed 

 they are shot and killed by the pelagic hunter, and the pups, deprived 

 of sustenance, die upon the rookeries. Excepting a few pups killed by 

 the surf occasionally, it has been demonstrated that all the pups found 

 dead are poor and starved, and when examined their stomachs are found 

 to be without a sign of food of any sort. In 1891 the rookeries on St. 

 Paul Island were covered in places with dead pups, all of which had 

 every symptom of having died of hunger, and on opening several of 

 them the stomachs were found to be empty. 



The resident physician, Dr. Akerly, examined many of them and 

 found in every instance that starvation was the cause of death. The 

 lowest estimate made at the time, placing the number of dead pups on 

 the rookeries at 25,000, is not too high 



It has been said that man can do nothing to facilitate the propaga- 

 tion of the fur seal. My experience does not support this. The reser- 

 vation of females and the killing of the surplus males, so that each 

 bull can have a reasonable number of cows, is more advantageous to 

 the growth of the rookeries than when in a state of nature bulls killed 

 each other in their efforts to secure a single cow. 



The same care can be and is exercised in the handling and manage- 

 ment of the seal herd as is bestowed by a ranchman upon his bauds of 

 ranging stock, and is productive of like results. The seals have become 

 so accustomed to the natives that the presence of the latter does not 

 disturb them. The pups are easily handled by the natives, and for- 

 merly, when used as an article of food, thousands of pups were actually 

 picked up and examined, in accordance with Government requirement, 

 to avoid the killing of a female. So easily are the seals controlled 

 that, when a drive of bachelors is made to the killing grounds, a guard 

 of two or three small boys is sufficient to keep them from straying, 

 and from the general band any number from one upward can be 

 readily cut out. It is possible in the future, as it has been in the past, 

 to reserve unmolested suitable areas to serve as breeding grounds; to 

 set aside each year a proper number of young males for future service 



