470 THE I'UK SEALS OF THE I'KIblLUF ISLANDS. 



ZOLTOI. 



On the way n little IimiuI oT about 75 pups were noticed out on the rocks on tliis 

 side of Zoltoi Sands and under the village clitt'. The water of the bay is full of 

 swimming pups. 



There is an unusually large nunjber of bulls and half bulls on Zoltoi Hands and 

 bluffs. Among then) are more bachelors than have been seen there for a long time. 

 Many, evidently, have recently returned from the water. The usual number of bulls 

 are sleeping on the sands and in the little cove on the other side of the neck. 



The testes in a large number of bulls were observed. Some show them plainly, 

 others less distinctly, while others show no trace at all. 



RKEF. 



Th(^ ])ups in going into the water probably do so for the sport and enjoyment there 

 is in swimming. Their inherited instinct for catching fish proui])ts them to pick up 

 and toss about any object, stick, shell, feathi-r, or whatever may come within their 

 reach. They do not need to eat, because they are still nursing. 



The cow evidently knows her pup's voice. A little wet dripping pup calling loudly 

 is making his way up through the crowd of sleeping cows and jiups to the bunch by 

 the rock on which 1 am sitting. A cow suddenly sits up and answers him. He comes 

 directly toward her, is recognized, and begins nursing. The cow was apparently 

 awakened from sleep by the voice of the ])up. She was perfectly dry, ami the pup 

 had been swimming. This is back at least one eighth of a mile from the shore. 



1 get down from the rock and make my way slowly through the sleeping crowd of 

 cows and pups- A young bull awakened suddenly is very much frightened and causes 

 a. stampede by his running. 1 hide behind a rock and the seals quiet down. In a few 

 minutes I make my way through the line to the bare space between it and the beaeli. 

 A tew only of the cows m ke their way to the water, the great mass keep their ])laces. 



The "spreading" is more marked today because there are more cows on shore. 

 On account of the steep slant of the bowlder beach one can walk along here entirely 

 out of view of the cows above. There are numy pups, cows, bulls, and yearlings at the 

 water's edge, and the water is full offshore. 



Twenty little yearlings are counted here on the stones of the beach in a space of 

 100 feet. There seems to be about the same number of 2ycar olds. The reef has a 

 length of about 5,000 feet. Here would be 1,000 of these yearlings on the rocks of this 

 rookery alone, in the water the yearlings seem to bear about the same prop(ntion, 

 and they are to be found on shore wherever the pui>s are. Adding to the 1,000 on the 

 rocks, a like number for the water, and an eijual number for those scattered among the 

 sleeping cows and pups, you have 3,000 yearlings tor this rookery alone. Reef rookery 

 has about one-tenth the number of seals. Here would, therefore, be ;30,000 yearlings. 

 This kind of calculation is not worth much. l>ut one can easily see that a large 

 numbtsr of these little seals may be scattered over the rookeries, and it is not at all 

 necessary to suppose that any of them do not come to the islands. 



There aie many deaths due to starvation along tlx^ shore, a:Kl many ])iips are 

 dying in out-of theway places among the locks. It will be necessary to look shaii)ly 

 if all are counted. Some of the oldei- dead are bound to be lost, especially those dead 

 in runways of bachelors and other ])laces when; then^ has been much moving about 

 over the bodies. The skulls of two dead g'ay pups are taken. 



