T)*) SKAL LIFE ON TI1K PK'IBILOF ISLANDS. 



Indian villages, and the testimony of both Indian and white hunters at 



that time pointed strongly to the conclusion that the breeding grounds 

 of the animals with which \ve were familiar could not be far distant. I 

 have myself seen the black pups in the water when they appealed to be 

 but a few weeks old. and others have assured me ihat a considerable 

 number were found from time to lime swimming with their mothers. 

 This | the nome noi i being of constant occurrence year after year, and in the 

 absence of a wider range of observations, we were naturally confirmed 

 by them in the conclusion to which 1 have above referred. 



In recent years it has been den ion si rated by the large catches obtained 

 oil the coast by pelagic hunters, and by the testimony of a great num- 

 ber of people who.-c attention has been directed to the matter, that the: 

 herd of seals, of which we saw only a very limited proportion irom the 

 Xeah Bay station, is a very large one: and it now seems beyond a doubt 

 that the comparatively few authentic cases in which pups were seen 

 upon or in the vicinity of the coast were anomalous, tor it is reasonable 

 to suppose that in so large a mass of pregnant females an occasional 

 one would be prematurely overtaken by the pains of the parturition, 

 and that the offspring brought forth under favorable conditions, as 

 upon a bunch of kelp or some rock, should survive at least a few days 

 and be brought in and kept by the Indians, as 1 have occasionally seen 

 them. I have also seen at the villages late in the season, in the hands 

 of the Indian boys, live pups which had been recently removed from 

 their speared mothers, and whose 1 vitality was such that they continued 

 to live for several days: but it is a well known fact that young mam- 

 malia may be born several days, or possibly even a month or two, 

 before full term and still survive. It is possible, too, that as a source 

 of error the hunters may have mistaken gray pups whose coats had 

 been darkened by wetting, or those a few months old. born the prece- 

 ding summer, for the so-called black pups. 



At the Neah Bay station large bull seals are seldom seen, and the 

 major part of those* killed are pregnant females, having in them small 

 fetuses early in the season say about January or February and later 

 full-grown young. From all the evidence I am able to gather. 1 believe 

 the different classes of seals remain apart when upon the British Colum- 

 bia coast, and old bulls and immature young males being chiefly found 

 at a considerable distance from the land, while the pregnant females 

 and young males travel close along the shore, and are frequently seen 

 in limited numbers in the straits and iidets. 



In the light of investigation and research had since the date of my 

 observations, the most of which were made more than ten years ago, I 

 am satisfied that the mass of the herd from which the British Columbia 

 or Victoria catch is obta ined are born neither in the wat er nor upon the 

 land in the vicinity where they are caught, and it appears most probable 

 from the routes upon which they are followed and the location in which 

 they are found bv pelagic hunters between March and August that 

 they originate in. migrate from, and annually return to Bering Sea. 



It has been slated in print that I said I had seen pups born on the 

 kelp in the water. '[\\\> is a gross misrepresentation. I merely said 

 that it had been reported to me that such birth had been witnessed, 

 and <|iioted as m\ aiithorilv ('apt. F. II. McAlmond. of the schooner 

 (Jlninifiinii p. I'd.",. \ ( ,l. I. of 1'iiited States Fish Commission's report). 



Pelagic sea I i in:' was carried on by the Indians at Neah Bay long 

 before, I first went among them, hut they were then, and until within a 

 few years, provided only with their canoes, spears, and other native 

 implements constituting th- necessary outfit for an aboriginal seal 



