148 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



shallow water, and, after repeated trials, learn to swim; but even then 

 they spend most of their time on land until they leave the islands late 

 in November. During the first few weeks after their birth they are not 

 amphibious, and land is a necessity to their existence. The mother 

 seals go out to sea to feed soon after giving birth to their young, and 

 return at intervals of from a few hours to several days to suckle and 

 nourish their young. 



The mother seal readily distinguishes her own offspring from that of 

 others, nor will she permit the young of any other seal to suckle her. 

 I have noticed in the killing of young seals (pups) for food in November 

 that their stomachs were full of milk, although, apparently, the mothers 

 had not been on the islands for several days previous. I have observed 

 that the male seals taken in the forepart of the season, or within a few 

 days after their arrival at the islands, are fat and their stomachs con- 

 tain quantities of undigested fish (mostly cod), while the stomachs of 

 these killed in the latter part of the season are empty; and they dimin- 

 ish in flesh until they leave the islands late in the season. 



I am of the opinion that while the female often goes long distances to 

 feed while giving nourishment to her young, the male seals of 2 years 

 old and over seldom, if ever, leave the islands for that purpose until they 

 start on their migration southward. When the seals are on the breed- 

 ing grounds they are not easily frightened unless they are too nearly 

 approached, and even then they will go but a short distance if the cause 

 of their fright becomes stationary. 



It is impossible to estimate with any sort of accuracy the number of 

 seals on the Pribilof Islands, because of the seals being constantly in 

 motion, and because the breeding grounds are so covered with broken 

 rocks of all sizes that the density varies. I think all estimates hereto- 

 fore made are unreliable, and in the case of Elliott and others who have 

 endeavored to make a census of seal life, the numbers are, in my opinion, 

 exaggerated. Measurements of the breeding grounds, however, show 

 an increase or decrease of the number of seals, because the harems are 

 always crowded together as closely as the nature of the ground and 

 temper of the old bulls will permit. My observation has been that 

 there was an expansion of the rookeries from 1870 up to at least 1879, 

 which fact I attribute to the careful management of the islands by the 

 United States Government. In the year 1880 I thought I began to 

 notice a falling off from the number of seals on Northeast Point rookery, 

 but this decrease was so very slight that probably it would not have 

 been observed by one less familiar with seal life and its conditions than 

 I; but I could not discover or learn that it showed itself on any of the 

 other rookeries. In 1884 and 1885 I noticed a decrease, and it became 

 so marked in 1886 that everyone on the islands saw if. This marked 

 decrease in 1886 showed itself on all the rookeries on both islands. 



Until 1887 or 1888, however, the decrease was not felt in obtaining 

 skins, at which time the standard was lowered from 6 and 7 pounds to 

 5 and 4 pounds. The hauling grounds of Northeast Point kept up 

 the standard longer than the other rookeries, because, as I believe, the 

 latter rookeries had felt the drain of open-sea sealing during 1885 and 

 1886 more than Northeast Point, the cows from the other rookeries 

 having gone to the southward to feed, where the majority of the sealing 

 schooners were engaged in taking seal. There was never while I have 

 been upon the island any scarcity of vigorous bulls, there always being 

 a sufficient number to fertilize all the cows coming to the islands. It 

 was always borne in mind by those on the islands that a sufficient num- 

 ber of males must be preserved for breeding purposes, and this accounts 



