20 



SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



Paul, we found seals iu abuudauee. The sea being perfectly smooth. I 

 went out iu the diugey a few hundred yards from the shij) and photo- 

 graphed several seals, showing their positions when asleep and awake. 

 The distance at which we were able to photograph them was from 30 

 to 40 feet. In the three-quarters of an hour 2(i seals were counted. 

 Most of them were sleeping, and all were females, judging by size alone. 

 The photographs show the customary attitudes. Seals sleeping at sea 

 have little more than the nose, lower Jaw, and liind tlii)pers above water, 

 the fore dippers being raised occasionally as the animal scratches itself 

 or rolls slowly from side to side. The back is always down and deeply 

 submerged. 



As a rule sealing with spears is practicable only when seals are found 

 asleep, the ordinary spearing distance being 30 to 35 feet. To the fur 

 seal's unfortunate habit of sleejiing much at sea is chietly traceable its 

 diminution, for it is at such times most readily approached by the pelagic 

 sealer and taken with guns or spears. The number of seals to be 

 observed asleep in Bering Sea is greater than elsewhere, the migration 



Slee])ii!g fur seals. 



being over and the animals feeding at their natural habitat. It is a 

 well known fact of natural history that breeding male seals do not leave 

 the rookeries during the breeding season, and tliat young pups can not 

 leave the immediate vicinity of the islands until they depart on their 

 first migration southward. 



From the almost constant ])resence on the hauling grounds of the 

 nonbreeding males, it is also well established that they do not leave the 

 islands to any great extent. The females alone constitute a class that 

 feed at long distances from the islands during the breeding season. 

 Their excursions in search of food extend over liOO miles, and com- 

 mencing soon after the birth of their young are continued to the close 

 of the season. There can be no doubt but that the nursing females are 

 the most constantly exposed of any class of seals to the destructive 

 methods of pelagic sealing in Bering Sea, and that their capture during 

 the breeding season is, of all the agencies tending toward the diminution 

 of the seal herd, the one most to be deplored. 



