296 EXTRACTS FROM VARIOUS PUBLICATIONS. 



years, it is evident that all the females did not begin to bear even in 

 their fifth, year. 



b. It is well known that the male seal may become a bull (sekatch) in 

 his sixth, but not earlier than his fifth year. Can it be said, then, that 

 the females bear before their fourth year! 



c. If the male seal cannot become a bull before his fifth year, then, 

 since according to Buffon's opinion an animal may live seven times as 

 long as the time which is required for it to reach complete maturity, the 

 male seal may live at least thirty years and the female at least twenty- 

 eight years. 1 



Taking Buffon's opinion as a basis, and employing the converse rea- 

 soning, it follows that an animal does not arrive at complete maturity 

 (and, consequently, cannot procreate his species) until he has com- 

 pleted the seventh part of his life. It follows also that the female seal 

 cannot bear before her fourth year. 



There is, therefore, no doubt that the female seals do not begin to 

 bear earlier than their fifth year, that is, at the expiration of four years 

 of their life, and not in their third or fourth year. It may be admitted, 

 of course, that some females have young as early as their fourth year, 

 but this is the exception, not the rule. In order to be more thoroughly 

 convinced of the fact that the cows cannot bear in their third year, it 

 is only necessary to glance at the two-year old female, and compare her 

 with the bull and the mothers, and every one will then say that it is 

 impossible. 



Do the cows bear every year? And how many times do they bear 

 in the course of their life? It is very difficult to decide these questions, 

 because it is impossible to make any investigations on the subject, but 

 it is thought that the cows bear annually during their early years, and 

 every other year when they grow older. Consequently they may have, 

 under ordinary circumstances, from ten to fifteen pups in the whole 

 course of their lives, and even more. This opinion is based upon the 

 fact that (excepting one year, 1832) no very great number of cows has 

 ever been seen without pups; but it cannot be said that uirpregnant 

 females never visit the Pribiloff Islands, because such are seen there 

 every year. As to the number of cows which have no pups, it may be 

 assumed with certainty, according to the opinion and the ocular obser- 

 vation of the old inhabitants, that not more than one-fifth of the cows 

 that are seen are barren. Still, in order not to lead others as well as 

 myself into error in my estimates of the increase of the seals, I esti- 

 mate a third (as barren). 



There is one more question which is very important in estimating the 

 increase of the seals, viz : Of the number of seals born in one year, how 

 many are males? And is the number of females always equal to the 

 number of males ? 



Judging by the bachelors which accumulated during the close-times, 

 that is to say, in 1822, 1823, 1824, on St. Paul, and in 1826-'27 on St. George 

 it is evident that the number of bachelors was very variable; for in. 



_ ^his opinion is corroborated by tbe observations of tbe old inhabitants, and par- 

 ticularly that of one of the best Creoles, Shayashnikoff, who, on bis arrival at tbe 

 island of St. Paul in 1817 noticed one young bull (recognizable by bis bald head), 

 who at that time already bad a large herd of cows, equal in number to those kept 

 by tbe vigorous old bulls. It must, therefore, be believed that this male became a 

 bull more than five years previous to that time, and that, consequently, be was then 

 more than ten years old, and this bull visited the island of St. Paul regularly every 

 year until 1832, i. e., for fifteen years longer, and always occupied one and the same 

 spot, and it is only in recent years that they have noticed that the number of his 

 cows was growing less and less. 



