112 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



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 we were familiar could not be far distant. I 

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

 but a few weeks old, and others have assured me that a considerable 

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

 This phenomenon 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 I have above referred. 



In recent years it has been demonstrated by the large catches obtained 

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

 ber of people whose attention has been directed to the matter, that the 

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

 Neah 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, for 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 I 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 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, I 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 inlets. 



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 obtained are born neither in the water 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 by pelagic hunters between March and August that 

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



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

 kelp in the water. This is a gross misrepresentation. I merely said 

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

 and quoted as my authority Capt. E. H. McAlmond, of the schooner 

 Champion (p. 203, vol. 1, of United States Fish Commission's report). 



Pelagic sealing was carried on by the Indians at Neali Bay long 

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

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

 implements, constituting the necessary outfit for an aboriginal seal 



