456 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PKIBILOF ISI>A?iDS. 



l)ossil)le. Pups branded iu tUe middle of October would run uo risk of dyiiijj; of 

 starvatiou. They would be stronger at tbat time and better able to stand tlie 

 bandliiiL;. On the other band, the pup will then be getting bis gray hair, and tiie hair 

 bullied off in branding would leave him bare all winter. Further, the weather is 

 severer and the time shorter for his recovery from any temporary effects of the 

 burning. If the brand is applied before the gray hair comes in, all hair merely 

 burned off would be reidaced by the uew coat and the scar would be ( uly a small 

 matter. 



Two 2-year-old females were caught iu one pod of pups and branded. They 

 jiroved diflicult to manage. A noose attached to a pole was placed about their heads 

 and twisted tight, the pole being pointed and held into the ground. This controlled 

 the auimars head. Another man held the hind tliiipers. The seals, however, bit the 

 jiole viciously and cut their months, making them bleed profusely. The branding of 

 tile older seals does not seem to be a very feasible thing, at least with presents 

 appliances, and the beast is an extremely hard one to manage. 



SORTING THE PUPS. 



The seat of operations was moved at uoon to a more convenient place above the 

 cliffs at Lukaniu. The greatest diftieulty is experienced in driving up the piqjs. Tliey 

 hide under the stones and can not be got out except one by one by (he tli[)pers. When 

 111 the t)pen ground they all endeavor to get into the same phu^e at the same time, 

 causing danger of smothering. When one starts all start. Apparently none have 

 been injured tlius far. 



When the male pups are separated from the pod they persist in coming back to it, 

 and bite so savagely that they are constantly putting the natives to rout, who have 

 a wholesome dread of their teeth. An improvement in handling the jinps would be a 

 small portable yard that eonld be thrown about the pod, with a stone in the middle 

 about v/hicb they could crowd without crowding on one another. Then when a pup 

 was taken out he could not get back. But of course if branding is to be done on a 

 large scale it will be necessary to provide more elaljorate apparatus. Judging from 

 the ditliculties in handling these few i)ups, one wonders what was the result when the 

 5,000 pups were aiinually sorted out for natives' food. The very fact that these were 

 so handled, however, shows that there is uo insurmountable obstacle in the way. 



From the edge of Lukanin (Jlilf 4 of the branded jiups in the earliest pods can be 

 seen on the rocks, where they have come out after swimming around the point, a 

 distance of about a third of a mile. One of the branded 2-year-olds is lying beside 

 them. She is evidently out of sorts with herself. 



The pups branded on the top of the cliff have been driven from a runway leading 

 u|) from the beach below. The first 4 released from branding go directly down to the 

 water on the other side of the clitf. The next 2 return to the place from which they 

 came and lie down in a pod of pups that could not be routed out from among the i-ocks. 

 One little fellow goes to the point of the cliff and acts as if he would walk right over, 

 lie stops and turns round. Afterwards he becomes frightened and backs over the 

 cliff, dropping to the hard ground below, from which he rebounds like a ball. Without 

 any ado he goes oft to the water. 



