SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIP.ILOF ISLANDS. 41 



of uncertainty the master's report was given the benefit of tlie doubt. 

 As a result of the corrections made in the masters' reports of the spring 

 catch for 1895, the records of the Bering Sea catch, made a few months 

 later, were kept more carefully. There being still considerable misrep- 

 resentation, masters of vessels, when licensed for sealing, should be 

 cautioned against making incorrect returns, for which the authorities 

 should accept no excuse. The facts of the case are apparent. The 

 skinning of seals in canoes by Indians makes the tally of the sexes of 

 skins thrown on the decks of sealing vessels aftt'r nightfall uncertain, 

 while the falsity of all statements of a majority of males is self evident. 

 It could be demonstrated in many ways. Take, for example, the well- 

 known conditions existing on the Pribilof Islands; the breeding males 

 do not leave tlie islands — in fact, do not enter the water — during the 

 breeding season, while the surplus males resulting from the polygamous 

 nature of the seal have always been in large part removed by annual 

 killings upon the islands. Females must, therefore, necessarily con- 

 stitute the great bulk of the pelagic, catch. Out of a total of 12;) seals 

 examined at random by me upon the decks of sealing vessels in Bering 

 Sea during the i)ast season, lOd were females, or live-sixths of the 

 whole number. The starvation of young seals upon the rookeries that 

 follows the operations of the sealing fleet in Bering Seals also evidence 

 as to the sex of the seals killed. The loss of young seals uj) to Octo- 

 ber 10 is reported to be 28,000 by actual count, while many were then 

 fonnd in a dying condition.^ 



SEX, AGE, PREGNANCY, AND FOOD OF FUR SEALS TAKEN IN 

 BERING SEA DURING AUGUST, 1895. 



During the cruise of the steamer Albatross on the pelagic sealing 

 grounds in August, 1895, many carcasses of fur seals, obtained from 

 day tQ day from vessels engaged in sealing, were examined with refer- 

 ence to their age, sex, breeding condition, and food. Such carcasses 

 were readily secured from schooners after the return of the hunting 

 boats, while the evening work of skinning was going on, and all of 

 those obtained were conveyed to the laboratory of the AUxdross fov 

 dissection and examination. Of a total of 123 so examined in different 

 localities from August 11 to 21, 10<l were of female seals. Of the latter 

 number 78 were nursing females, all determinations being bavSed on 

 examinations of mammary glands, uteri, and ovaries. Of the remain- 

 ing females, 2(» in number, 15 were yearlings and 11 were 2 years old. 

 Of the males, 17 in number, 2 were yearlings, 4 were 2 years old, 8 were 

 3 years old, and 3 were 4 years old. Nearly five-sixths of the whole 

 number being females, and nearly four-fifths of these being females in 

 milk, the heavy drain made byi^elagic sealing upon the producing class 

 of seals is apparent. 



Only one of the 15 yearling females bore signs of recent im])regna- 

 tion, and this one, taken for a yearling on account of its small size, 

 may have been 2 years old. Four of the 2-year-old females were preg- 

 nant, one showing the corpus luteum in the right and the others in the 

 left ovary. The breeding season not being over, the other 2-year-old 

 females may have been impregnated later. A few nursing females not 

 bearing marks of present pregnancy may have been impregnated and 



' As this report goes to press I am officially infoiined. that the sealing schooner 

 Penelope on February 29, 1896, entered at San Francisco a catch of 215 seals, of which 

 only 8 were males, all the rest — 207 — being females. The catch was made from Jan- 

 uary 24 to February 26, between the Farallone Islands and Point Conception, Cal., 

 at distances averaging 25 miles olf shore. — C. H. T., March 12, 1H96. 



