THE FEEDING OF PUPS. 487 



One little pup, tlio only one I have seen tbat sliows crippled contlition, is lyinu- on 

 a rock; Lis fore tlippers are badly out of order, one is still' and tiu^ others swollen. 

 He can not use them, but pushes himself about on his stomach. I saw him two weeks 

 ago in a worse condition. He is evidently nourished. He has just as bad a temjier as 

 any of his well brethien. 



INVESTIGATIONS REGAKDINCf FEEDING OF PUPS, 



In the afternoon we killed 2 pups on the rocks at Point Warehouse for the 

 examination of their stomachs. These pups had come over from the Lagoon, aiid 

 after their swim were sleeping on the rocks. If the hundreds of pups swimming in 

 the cove are feeding, it would be natural to suppose that those coming out on the 

 rocks to sleep arc those that have satisfied themselves. Mr. Macoun and Judge 

 Crowley were present. 



The stomach of one pup contained a small quantity of thick, creamy milk. The 

 milk was dotted with reddish specks, which Mr. Macoun thought might be bits of 

 the little red seaweed, but contained nothing else. 



The second stomach contained more than a pint of rich, creamy milk, with no 

 trace of any foreign substance in it. These pups were very large and of the oldest. 

 Fortunately, they were both males. The skins will be made into specimens. 



Attached to the end of the wharf was a piece of rope about 10 feet long. Five 

 pups within a few yards of us were pulling away at the loose end of this rope. They 

 would swim in toward the dock and then swim out as far as the rope would go, almost 

 turning somersaults when it became taut. Pups will play with anything within their 

 reach. If they eat anything it is by accident. A fish head thrown to one was 

 immediately seized and used as a plaything. 



SEPTEMBER 23. 



I went over this morning with Judge Crowley in the whaleboat to Zapadni. 

 Pups are visible in the water all the way along from Lagoon to Tolstoi. About 

 midway there is a pod of upward of a hundred, with some yearlings (they might be 

 cows) and one old bull among them. 



The circuit of pups is doubtless complete from Kitovi and Lukanin down to East 

 landing, the lleef, (iorbatch, Zoltoi Bay, Village Cove, Lagoon, Tolstoi, English Bay, 

 and up away beyond the point above Zapadni where the watchhouse is. The water 

 throughout this entire coast line is full of pups. 



ZAPADNI. 



Landing at Southwest Bay, Judge Crowley and I walked along the shore front 

 throughout the length of Zapadni. We counted the starving pups and found only '20 

 in the whole distance. There were a good many of the late small pups which I noted 

 on the Reef and at Kitovi. The Judge thought they might have been born as late as 

 the loth of August. 



On Zapadni. as on the Keef. everything has drawn back high up from the original 

 rookery ground. All the flats are bare. We will be .able to get the greater part of 

 the dead pups in our count here, but the number of recently dead ones will be small. 

 Found one freshly dead puji and took him for a specimen. There seem to be fewer 

 gray pups and more small pups here than anywhere else. 



