480 THE FUR SEAT.S OF THE PKI13IL0F ISLANDS. 



boundary of B's harem. Her pup begins nursing eagerly. You eau almost imagine 

 you can see his sides inflate. 



The brown hull 1! starts for the roek, drives olf the cow, and settles down on it. 

 She wanders oil' and the pup after her. Presently the bull starts after another 

 cow. At once the cow returns with her pup. The bull comes back and gets on the 

 rock. When last seen he was lying on the rock and the cow sitting on an edge beside 

 him, while the little pup stands in the mud. 



There are at least 3 freshly dead pups in the slide. In one place there are 4 

 close together, all of which have died within a week. Two hopelessly starving little 

 fellows are seen moving about. 



Returning by Zoltoi sands, I find that the half albino which was so conspicuous 

 in the earlier part of the season is out again, wet. It looks as though these were 

 homecoming days. 



SEPTEMBER 19. 



I went this morning to Lukanin to see the branded imps. Search was made for 

 the castrated pup, but it could not be found. 



It is evident that when you pick up a pup on a rookery you can't be certain that 

 he belongs where you tind him. lie may belong to another rookery. At the very 

 upi)er extremity of Lukanin are 2 of the little single brand piqis irom Kitovi, and 

 one of the triple brand pups taken at the upper extremity of Lukanin certainly 

 belongs in Kitovi. 



A number of branded pups are in sight. The backs of some are beginning to 

 heal, the scars growing narrower. Most of them still look uncomfortable, but none 

 seem in danger of dying. Colonel Murray found one of the branded pups dead early 

 this inorning, but I have been unable to find it. He said the ])up must have been dead 

 ten days or two weeks, and ]>robably die<l soon after the branding. 



I see one of the little fellows with a sore back nnrsing. His mother notices his 

 back and puts her no.se to it. He stops nursing with a snap as though to prevent 

 her touching it. The little braiuled fellows have usually one or two admiring or 

 (M-iticising or i)erhaps symi)athizing neighbor ]inps looking at them and investigating. 

 They snap and growl resentfully. 



It is impossible in going to the Reef to go round and over the ridge. The whole 

 space is full of bulls with bachelors mixed in. In order to pass by way of the angle 

 you must drive into tlie water 200 or 300 bulls. 



KILLE1!«. 



(roing out over the killing grouiid with a view to coming in along the beach on the 

 east side under the clifi's, I tind a school of killers in the water, perhai)s a third of a 

 mile out. They are moving up toward Kitovi Point. It talces twenty minutes for 

 thcni to get out of sight. They are moving along slowly, rising at regular intervals 

 in a curve, which brings the head, then the fin and part of the back, and last the 

 tail out of the water. They have a motion very similar to that of the seal, except that 

 they do not rise entirely out of the water. There are 7 of them. One is a large fellow, 

 bearing somewhat the same relation to the others that a bull seal might to his harem 

 of cows. There is a small one, a young one probably; it is following and evidently 

 playing with the big fellow. Three of the others are together and the remaining two 



