62 



they frequently enter the sea at long distances from their original hauling giouml, 

 but there is every reason to believe that they return iunuediately to their own 

 hauling ground, often passing others on the way. Many of tlie l)ulls after returning 

 from feeding resume their old places on the rookeries, and the others haul out on 

 favorite sand beaclies, on which they rest in the intervals of feeding. With the 

 younger seals tliis return as to place is doubtless less certain. But it is more than 

 lilicly that the 2-year-old females and the yearlings of both sexes return to their 

 hoiue rookery. 



DIFFEKENCE BETWEEN HERDS. 



There is, as has been noticed by various furriers, consideraVile difference in form, 

 color, and appearance between the seals of the Connnander Islands herd and those 

 of the I'ribilofs. The form of the Pribilof seals seems broader in the head and fuller 

 in the neck and l)reast. The color of the females and young runs through various 

 shades of warm brown, cinnamon, and silvery gray. The seals of the Commander 

 Islands are sooty in shade, thougli varying from light to dark, but with little brown 

 or silvery. The head and neck are more slemler in i^roportion to the girth. The nails 

 in the tore flipper are developed in the Couuuandcr herd, but rudimentary in the 

 Pribilof herd, only a little pit in the skin uunking the place of each. These charac- 

 ters are all subject to individual variation, but they will hold good of the herd as a 

 whole. The fables of the colouizatiou of the Conuuauder Islauds by fur seals from 

 the Pribilofs at soiue couii)aratively recent date have no basis as knowledge. If the 

 members of the two herds interiuingle ou any feeding ground, which is unlikely, 

 each returns to its own islands. 



Dr. Stejuegcr and (Captain Mo.ser further note that the fur seal of the Kurile and 

 Robben islands, which ((Uistitutes the inshore herd of .Japan, is likewise different 

 from that of the Commander Isands in that the fur near the skin is ([uite white. No 

 rookeries now remain ou the Kurile Islan<is, the raiders having destroyed pu])8 and 

 all, on Mustr, Kaikoke, and Srednoi, not nmre than 50 seals being now left. Only a 

 few hundred are now on the Kobben Island. 



XXI. BRANDING. 



ItKANDIXG PUPS. 



The recent experiments in branding female pups on the two islands will help 

 future observers to record the movements of the cows. During the present season 

 124 pups and 2 cows on Lukaniu Kookery were umrked on the back with the following 

 brand ^; on Kitavi l!tl pups were branded across the shoulders with this mark, 

 — , and ou North Rookery of St. George 62 pups received this brand, =, and 9 

 cows this, =. 



It may be here noted that branding is perfectly feasible. It does not seriously harm 

 the pups, while it effectually destroys the value of the skin. Close watch of the 

 branded pups on St. Paul Island wa.s kept until the date of leaving. It was found 

 that neither the wound nor the healed brand interfered with the relations of pup 

 and nmthcr. The salt watei-, while it had the effect of keeping the wound raw and 

 uncomfortable looking, also kept it clean, and prol>ably in the end hastened the proc- 

 ess of healing. By the 1st of October, from three weeks to one month after the 

 branding was done, the wonnds had healed perfectly and the pups were as lively as 

 their fellows. It was possible any day in October to count from 50 to 100 of the 

 branded ])ups on Kitavi and Lukaniu rookeries, and this was a fair ])roportion of 

 the pu])s to be on land. At the time of the count of starved pups on St. George, 18 

 of the branded pu])S and 2 of the cows were seen, all in perfect condition. No dead 

 ones were noted. On St. Paul only 4 branded pups are known to have died, and the 

 rookeries were carefully searched for them when the count of starved pups was 

 made. Two of the pups were killed — 1 to furnish a specimen skin, 1 because it was 

 starving. One of the others was plainly drowned, and the fourth was too far decom- 

 posed when found to make it possible to ascertain the cause of death. 



Mr. .J. D. Williams, of Brooklyn, N. Y., a member of the only firm making a busi- 

 ness of dying seal .skins in this country, gives it as his opinion that if a brand were 

 to be applied to the back of the seal even so imperfectly as to leave no permanent 

 scar or trace in the raw skin, in the process of curing the fur would doubtless come 

 out, and the very fact that any class of seal skins were liable to this defect would 

 cast doubt upon the whole lot and depreciate their value. This process of branding 

 would therefore in itself, if necessary, put an end to pelagic sealing. 



