FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 131 



(c) If the male seal cau uot become a bull (seecatchie) earlier than the fifth year, 

 then, as Bufioii remarks, "animals cau live seven times the length of the period 

 re<iuired for their maturity." Therefore a seccatch can uot live less than thirty 

 years aud a female uot less than twenty-eight.' 



VICXIAMINOV'S 15ELIEF THAT FEMALE.S CAN NOT BKAU YOUNG UNTIL FOUK VEALS OLD. 



Taking the opinion of Buflfou for ground in sayiug that animals do not come to 

 their full maturit^until one-seventh of their lives has passed, it goes also to prove 

 that the female tseal cau uot bear yonug before her fourth year. 



It is, without doubt, a fact that female seals do not begin to bear youug before 

 their liftli year, i. e., the next four years after the one of their birth, and not in the 

 tliird or fourth year. That, however, is not the rule, but the exception. To make 

 it more a])i)arent that females can not bear young in their third year, consider 2-year- 

 ohl fi-malt's, ami compare them with seecatchie (adult bulls) aud cows (adult females), 

 and it will be evident to all that this is impossible. 



IJo the females bear vouug every year; aud how often in their lives do thev bring 

 forth? 



HIS DOUBTS ON THE SUBJECT. 



To settle this question is very difScult, for it is impossible to make any observa- 

 tions upon their movements. But I think that the females in their youuger years 

 (or ])rinio) bring forth every year, aud as they get older, every other year. Thus, 

 according to people accustomed to them, they may each bring forth iu their whole 

 lives from 10 to 1.5 young and even more. Tliis opinion is founded ou the fact that 

 never (except in one year, 18))2) have an excessive number of females been seen 

 Avithont youug; that cows uot pregnant hardly ever come to the Pribilov Islands; 

 that such females can uot be seen every year. As to how large a number of females 

 do not bear, according to the opinions aud personal observations of the old people, 

 the following may be depended upon with confidence: Not more than one-fifth of 

 the mature or '"efiective'' females are without young. But to avoid erroneous im- 

 pressions or coufiicting statements between others and myself, I would state that 

 I have had but one season ("irayt'^) in which to personally observe aud consider 

 the multiplication of seals. 



HIS THOUGHTS ON lURTH OF PUPS. 



There is one more very im])ortaiit question in the consideration of the breeding or 

 the increase of seals, and that is, of the number of young seals born in one year how 

 manv are malesf and is the number of males always the same in proportion to the 

 females? 



Judging froiu the holluschickie accumulated from the zapooska in 1822-1824 on 

 the island of St. Paul and iu 1826-27 ou the island of 8t, (jeorge, the number of 

 youug males w;vs widely variable. For example, on the island of St. Paul, in three 

 years 11,000 seals were si)arcd, aud iu the following three years there were killed 

 7,000, i.e., about two-thirds of the number saved. Opposed to this, ou the, island 

 of St. CJeorge, from 8,500 seals sjiared iu two years less than 3,000 were taken, hardly 

 one-third. 



Why this irregularity? Why should more young males be bom at one time aud 

 at another less? Or, why should there be years in which many cows do not bear 

 young? 



According to the belief of the people here I think that of the number of seals born 

 every year, half are males aud as many females [i. e., the other half). 



To demonstrate the above-mentioned conditions of seal life table No. 1 has been 

 forme<l of the number of seals annually killed ou the Pribilov Islands from 1817 to 1838 

 (when this work was ended). 



From this it will be seeu that — 



(1) No single successive year presents a good number of seals killed as compared 

 with the previous year; the number is always less. 



(2) The annual number of seals killed was not in a constant ratio. 



'This remark is sustained by the observation of old men, and especially by one of 

 the best Creoles, Shiesneekov, who was on the island of St. Paul iu 1817, and who 

 knows of one seecatch (known by a bald head) which iu that time had already a 

 large herd of cows or females, surrounded and hunted by a like uumber of females 

 and strong, savage old bulls. Therefore it may be safely thought that this bnll did 

 not get his growth until liis fifth year, aud at this time he could uot have been less 

 than ten years old. v^nd this same bull eanu! every year to the island aud the same 

 place for fifteen years iu succession up to 1832, aud it was ouly in the later years 

 that his harem grew smaller and smaller iu number. 



