THK SWIMMING PUPS. G9 



Wlieii it is about a month old the puii seeks the watei's edge, and after ])a(hlling 

 about for a time iti tlie tide pools gradually learns to swim. This art, iu which it 

 becomes wouderfully expert, it finds evident difficulty in acquiring. 



THE SWIMMING OF THE PUPS. 



Many accounts have been given of tlie way in which various classes of animals are 

 snpposed to assist the pups in learning to swim. If these have any foundation 

 whatever it arises from a misinterpretation of the fact that the young bachelors, and 

 probably the yearling cows as well, play with and tease the pups in their first 

 attempts to swim. Bachelors were thus often seen to shove the little pups off the 

 rocks into the water, or even to attempt to catch and duck them. But the puri)ose 

 was not to assist the pups. 



What first starts the pup to the water is not clear, though why any other reason 

 than the mere fart that it must eventually learn to swim and that the water is at 

 hand, should be necessary, is not clear. It may be that the first pups seek the water 

 following the example of the departing (!0ws. But, once a single ])up has made the 

 experiment, every pup in its section of the rookery soon follows the example. 



The pup seeks first the secluded and protected tide pools, of which numbers can 

 be found along the rookery fronts. Here it ])addles about, gradually seeking the open 

 water, but keeping close to the shore. Its chief difficulty at the outset is to keep its 

 disi)roportionately large head above water. In a very short time it becomes perfectly 

 at home in the water and spends most of the daytime in it. As the pups are accus- 

 tomed to play on shore, so they play in the water, rolling over and over each other, 

 diving for shells, shaking strips of kelp, pieces of sticks, feathers, or anything that 

 comes to hand, Just as young dogs nn'ght. 



THE EXOTRSIONS OF THE PUPS. 



By the middle of September, when the pups have learned to swim well, they sud- 

 denly develop a roving spirit and pass back and forth between neighboring rookeries, 

 and there is a continuous baud of pups coming and going between them. Thus, such 

 a belt of pups was found in the early part of September to extend from Kitovi rookery 

 past East Landing to Reef rookery, nearly a mile distant. Another followed around 

 the clitts back of the village connecting (lorbatch with Lagoon. Lagoon was in like 

 manner connected with Tolstoi head, and a band of pups stretched on along the water 

 front of English Bay, uniting Tolstoi and t!'e Zapadnis. 



At certain points intermediate between these terminals, the pups hauled out in 

 groups of varying sizes and slept on the rocks, ajiparently remaining there for days 

 and days at a time. But after the i)ups were branded on Kitovi rookery, observa- 

 tions on a pod of these pups hauled out under Black Bluff showed that while the 

 number in ihese distant places remained nearly constant, the individuals came and 

 went regularly. The pups doubtless returned to the rookery to meet their mothers, 

 timing their visits with her return. 



Toward the close of the month of September these excursions of the pups ceased 

 as suddenly as they began, and the pups remained about their respective rookeries 

 and in the waters adjacent to them, sleeping on shore when hungry, sleei)ing and 

 playing in the water when full of milk. 



