RECENT CHANGES IN HABITS AND NUMBERS, ETC. 395 



thus continued into the winter. The females, consequently, 

 lingered in small numbers, with their young, till into January, 

 while some of the young bulls, in groups of ten or twenty, were 

 seen as late as February 10. 



" The rapid decrease of the reserves, with the attendant 

 changes in the movements of the Seals, caused considerable 

 anxiety. The wise ones among the natives shook their heads 

 ominously, and said they had predicted this from slaughtering* 

 so many half-bulls during the jirevious three years. I felt this, 

 but could not order differently, the company having the right 

 to select their own animals ; but at the same time I thought that 

 this might not be the whole cause. I watched, as did all on 

 the island, the coming of the Seals in 1874, with intense anx- 

 iety. In the spring of that year the shores became, at the usual 

 time, fairly clear of ice and other obstructions, and on April 13, 

 the usual time for their arrival, the chief reported that Seals 

 had been seen in the water. Soon after two or three beach- 

 masters landed, and these were followed, on succeeding days, 

 by scattered groups of three to five at a time. By the 23d of 

 May enough young bulls had landed on the point to make a 

 drive for the i)urpose of obtaining fresh food for the people. 



" The changes that had been observed in the movements of the 

 Seals during the year 1873 were noticeable in a more marked 

 degree. The beachmasters took their positions on the breed- 

 ing-grounds farther apart than formerly, and there being less 

 cause for fighting there was less noise and tumult. The reserves 

 appeared in about the same numbers as in 1873, but there was 

 an increase in the proportion of the younger over the older 

 animals, as if a larger number of the former were coming for- 

 ward to take the place of the old stock of the period before the 

 leasing of the island. There was, on the whole, an evident gain 

 over the previous year, which gave us hope that the crisis of 

 depletion had passed. When the females came it was found 

 that their numbers had not materially changed. When the 

 time arrived for the breaking uj) of the ' rookeries they all 

 remained, only moving up farther from the water, where the 

 reserves and half-bulls met them, forming families in the same 

 manner as on their first landing earlier in the season ; and they 

 remained here with their young until the time of leaving the 

 island for the winter, going from here instead of from the bays, 

 as formerly. This has now become theii- fixed habit, they 

 remaining on, and going from, the breeding-iilaces direct. 



