162 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



G. Food and store shopping of the natives [Sectiou 5].— Most of these articles of food mentioned heretofore 

 fH'e purchased by the natives in the conipany's store at either island ; this food and the wearing apparel, crockery, 

 etc., which the company bring iij) here for the use of the people, is sold to them at the exact cost price of the same, 

 ])liis the expenses of transportation; and, many times within my knowledge, they have bought goods here, at these 

 stores, at less rates than they would have been subjected to in San Francisco ; the object of the company is not, 

 under any circumstances, to make a single cent of profit out of the sale of these goods to the natives; they aim 

 only to clear the cost and no more. Instructions to this effect are given to its agents, while those of the government 

 are called upon to take notice of the fact. 



The store at St. Paul, as well as that at St. George, has its regular annual "opening" after the arrival of the 

 steamer in the sjiring, to which the natives seem to pay absorbed attention; they crowd the buildings day and 

 nigiit, eagerly looking for all the novelties in food and apparel ; these slouchy men and shawl-hooded women, who 

 pack tlie area before the counters here, seem to feel as deep an interest in the process of shopping as the most 

 enthusiastic votaries of that business do in our own streets ; it certainly seems to give them the greatest satisfaction 

 of their lives on the Pribylov islands. 



II. Vigilance of the NATm:s [Sectiou 7]. — One of the peculiarities of these people is that they seldom 

 undress wheu they go to bed — neither the men, women, nor children ; and also that at any and all hours of the night 

 during the summer season, when I have ])assed in and out of the village to and from the rookeries, 1 always found 

 several of the natives squatting before their house doors or leaning against the walls, stupidly staring out into the 

 misty darkness of the fog, or chatting one with the other over their pipes. A number of the inhabitants, by this 

 <lisposition, are always up and around throughout the settlement during the entire night and day. In olden times, 

 and even recently, these involuntary sentinels of the night have often startled the whole village by shouting at the 

 top of their voices the pleasant and electric announcement of the " ship's light!" or have frozen it with superstitious 

 horror in the recital, at daybreak, of ghostly visions. 



I. Habits of fur-seal pups [Section 9]. — I have repeatedly watched young pups as they made advances to 

 nurse from another pup's mother ; the result invariably being, that while the mother would permit her own ofispriug 

 to suckle freely, yet, wheu these little strangers touched her nipples, she would either move abruptly away, or else 

 turn quickly down upon her stomach, so that the maternal fouutaius were inaccessible to the alien and hungry 

 '' kotickie". I have witnessed so many examples of the females turning pups away, to suckle only some particular 

 other one, that I feel sure I am entirely right in saying that the seal-mothers know their own young ; and that they 

 will not permit any others to nurse save their own. I believe that this recognition of them is due chiefly to the 

 mother's scent and hearing. 



J. Parasites of the fur seal [Section 9]. — The fur-seal spends a great deal of time, both at sea and on 

 land, in scratchiug its hide ; for it is anuoyed by a species of louse, upediculus, to just about the same degree and in 

 the same manner that our dogs are by Heas. To scratch, it sits upon its haunches, and scrapes away with the toe- 

 nails of first one and then the other of its hind-flippers ; by which action it reaches readily all portions of its head, 

 neck, chest, and shoulders ; and, with either one or the other of its fore-tlippers, it rubs down its spinal region back 

 of the shoulders to the tail. By that division of labor with its feet, it can promptly reduce, with every sign of 

 (iomfort, any lousj' irritation wheresoever on its body. This 2>(-'(^lcuhts peculiar to the fur-seal attaches itself almost 

 exclusivelj- to the pectoral regions ; a few, also, are generally found at the bases of the anricular pavilions. 



Wheu the fur-seal is engaged in this exercise, it cocks its head and wears exactly the same expression that our 

 common house-dog does while subjugating and eradicating tJeas ; the eyes are i^artly or wholly closed; the tongue 

 iolls out ; and the whole demeanor is one of quiet but intense satisfaction. 



The fur-seal appears also to scratch itself in the water with the same facility and unction so marked on land; 

 only it varies the action by using its forehands principally, in its fluvatile exercise, whUe its hind-feet do most of 

 the terrestrial scraping. 



K. Healthiness of the fur-seals [Section 9]. — While I have written with much emphasis upon the total 

 absence of any record as to the prevalence of an epidemic in these large rookeries, I should, perhaps, mark the fact 

 that no symptoms of iuternal diseases have ever been noticed here, such as tuberculosis of the lungs, etc., which 

 invariably attack and destroy the lur-seal when it is taken into confinement, as well as the sea-lions also; the latter, 

 however, have a much greater power of endurance under such artificial circumstances of life. The thousands upon 

 tnousands of disemboweled Pribylov fur-seal carcasses have never presented abnormal or diseased viscera of any 

 kind. 



li. Behavior of fur-seals at night [Section 9]. — I naturally enough, when beginning my investigation of 

 these seal-rookeries, expected to find the animals subdued at night, or early morning, on the breeding-grounds; 

 but a few consecutive nocturnal watches satisfied me that the family organization and noise was as active at one time 

 as at another throughout the whole twenty -four hours. If, however, the day preceding had chanced to be abnormally 

 warm, I never failed then to find the rookeries much more noisy and active during the night than they were by 

 daylight. The seals, as a rule, come and go to and from tha sea, fight, roar, and vocalize as much during midnight 

 moments as they do at noouday times. An aged native eudeavored to satisfy me that the "seccatchie" could 



