5()G THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRUilLOF ISLANDS. 



Opposite East Lamliug the killers stopped and begau swimming about in various 

 directions. Then they rounded up and began playing or something that seemed like it. 

 They went about in a small compass of water making it boil and foam. Occasionally 

 one of the small ones would jump entirely out of the water, much as a seal might. 

 They kept up this performance for half an hour and then mo\'ed back toward the 

 south. They were jnst out of range and could not be touched with the ritie. 



Nickoli Krukof said that the killers had rounded up a flock of seals and were eatiug 

 them. Seals were all the time passing uucouceruedly to and fro along the shore. 



REEF. 



Went out on the Reef again in the afternoon with Karp and Apollou. The killers 

 were to be seen passing the western side of the Keef from the dire(;tion of Zoltoi Bay. 

 < )ne of the sailors shot several times at them, though out of range, and it apparently 

 trightened the animals, for they swam (piickly away. They appeared again otf Sivutch 

 Kock to the east later on and had another tournament or round-up in the water. 



KILLERS. 



The killers are evidently about the islands everyday, and the number of pups and 

 cows they eat must be large. Two instances are said to be on record where the animals 

 were taken. One had 18 and the other 21 pup carcasses in their stomachs.' Of course 

 it is nut known how often they feed, but they seem to be at it all the time, Judging 

 from the freciuency of their ap]>earance within the past few days. 



If a boat's crew is to be continued on the islands, they should be armed with guns 

 that can reach these animals and e(iuipped with a. boat that will enable them to be 

 hunted with safety in fair weather. 



I walked most of the length of the Reef with Karp and Apollon. Saw no starving 

 pu]>s among the thousands of jjups along the water's edge. There were 300 of these 

 pui)s when the count was made on September 20 and they have evidently all died 

 since. There is apparently no new crop of starved pups coming in to take their ])laces. 

 But remembering how different were a]ipearajices and lact in the inspection prior to 

 the count, no great reliance can be placed ui)on this. 



The pups are very strong and active. They seem in every way quite as capable 

 of taking care of themselves in the water as the yearlings are. They certaiidy have 

 more blubber to work on. It would seem as if the pups were storing up a supply of 

 this article with which to stand out any period of fasting which may result in the 

 transition from milk to tish diet. 



A cow was started up on the Reef which acted as if b'ind, though her eyes seemed 

 all right. She plainly did not see. When touched she ran stumbling and falling over 

 rocks until she was well up into the parade ground. Then she lay down and would 

 not move. She went into much the same state as did the cows seen on Northeast Point 

 and Little Polovina — a sort of cataleptic fit. In the course of fifteen minutes she got 

 up and slowly stumbled back to the rookery. Karp said that the bright sun blinded 

 her. Both Karp and Apollou said that she would be all right. 



'On tracing tlicse stories they seem to have no liasis in fact so far as the islands are contemed, 

 having apparently been transferred as sailors' yarns from events among the hair seals on the Labrador 

 coast. 



