WINTER EESORTS, ETC. 411 



1,500 miles east of the Seal Islands, occasioually slioot and 

 bring in tlie young Seal puj)s (they probably slioot the mothers, 

 but they having too little blubber to float them they lose them). 

 During the winter months considerable numbers of Seal-skins 

 are taken by the natives of British Columbia ; some years as 

 many as two thousand. These find their way to the San Fran- 

 cisco market. On examining parcels of them I have found them 

 to be mostly very young Seals, with no male skins among them 

 old enough to show the sex. When at Victoria I made special 

 inquiries about the sealmg, and found that most of the skins 

 obtained there were taken in the water, but a half-breed hunter 

 told me he had found in summer, on Queen Charlotte Island, 

 groups of these animals consisting of two or more beachmasters, 

 with a dozen or more females and pups, but no half-grown males. 

 "Xor is it kno^n whether the different sexes associate during 

 the period of their absence from the islands. The males inva- 

 riably come to the island first, take up their positions and wait 

 the arrival of the females, which come after the males have all 

 arrived. They not only come by themselves, but they aU re- 

 main till after the males have gone. I have made constant 

 inquiries of all masters of vessels cruising for trade or whales^ 

 in Behring's Sea with reference to the occurrence of these ani- 

 mals in those waters, but in only one instance can I learn that 

 they have been observed. In 1870 a vessel, becalmed for nearly 

 a week one hundred miles north of the islands, in the month of 

 August, reported seeing many Seals, nearly all old buUs. As 

 at that time this class was largely in excess, it is i)ossible that 

 these males were off to feed. The Alaska Commercial Company 

 have a general depot of supplies at Onalaska, whence the mer- 

 chandise for their trade is distributed in schooners to the differ- 

 ent points on the main coast and the islands. The masters and 

 oflicers of these schooners, who are familiar with the Seals, say 

 they see smaU groups of small (apparently one- and two-year-old) 

 Seals at all times during July and August. These, I think, may 

 be young females, which, as already stated, do not visit the 

 island tiU they are three years old." 



