150 



ALASKA. 



grounds almost as quickly as they came. These sunuy, warm 

 days are, however, ou Saiut PauFs Island, very rare indeed, 

 and so the seals can have but little ground of complaint, if we 

 may presume that they have any at all. 



I saw but three albino pups among the hundreds of thousands 

 on Saint Paul's and none on Saint George. The}' did not differ 

 in any resjject from the other (normal) pups in size and shape. 

 Their hair, in the first coat, was, all over, a dull ocher ; the flip- 

 pers and muzzle were a flesh-tone, and the iris of the eye sky- 

 blue. The second coat gives, them a dirty yellowish-white 

 color, but it makes them exceedingly conspicuous when in among 

 the black pups, gray yearlings, and " holluschukie." 



I have also never seen any malformations or "monsters" 

 among the pups and other classes of the fur-seal ; nor have the 

 natives recorded anything of the kind, so far as I could ascer- 

 tain from them. 



Another curious fact may be recorded, that, with the excep- 

 tion of those animals which have received wounds in combat, 

 no sick or dying seals are seen upon the islands. Out of the 

 great numbers, thousands upon thousands of seals that must 

 die every year from old age alone, not one have I ever seen 

 here. They evidently give up their lives at sea. 



TaT)le alwwitig the Kcigltf, size, and (jrowih of llie fur-seal, (CaUorhbius iirsi)it(s,} 

 from the I) up to the adult, maU and female. 



[Tbe weigbts and measurement'* -were taljen by Mr. Samuel Falconer and the writer on tlio 

 killing-grounds at Saint George's Island, in 1873.] 



