388 TESTIMONY 



that, with exceptions now and then observed on the killing grounds, 

 they grow thinner and thinner as the season advances. 



The pup at birth is received by the mother with an affectionate re- 

 Attitude of mothers gard that is unmistakable; a sound not unlike that made 

 to p u p 8 - by an ewe, but not so loud, can be heard, and care is 



exercised by the mother for the pup's protection. I have repeatedly 

 seen a mother when her offspring was still so young as to be helpless, 

 remove it beyond the reach of the surf, or gently lift it from a hole 

 between the bowlders into which it had fallen. I have seen them often 

 place the udder in the most available position for the pup to suck, and 

 move themselves sufficiently close for it to be within easy reach. After 

 an absence in the sea, the mother invariably calls to her young repeatedly 

 and manifests pleasure on finding it. Later on the pup is able to rec- 

 ognize its mother, and as the female will suckle only her own pup the 

 pleasure and contentment which the meeting gives both is evident to 

 the most careless observer. 



Dead pups were as conspicuous by their iufrequency in 1892 as by 

 their numerousness in 1891. In no instance was there 

 pups. ^ ^ uo ted an unusual number of dead pups except on 



the breeding grounds of Tolstoi, the position, character, and size of 

 which gave prominence to the carcasses. Here the mortality, while in 

 no way approaching that of the previous season, was still beyond the 

 normal, as indicated by the deaths upon the other breeding grounds. 



Any surreptitious killing of the mothers can not be charged with it, 

 for such killing either there or anywhere else on the island would have 

 become the gossip of the village and readily detected by the attempt 

 to dispose of the skins. Disease or epidemics are not known among 

 the seals; and I have never seen cows dead from sickness upon the 

 islands. There are no hauling grounds so close to the breeding areas 

 that the driving of the young males could cause consternation among 

 the females during the breeding season. Stampedes or disturbances 

 can not account for it, for not only are the breeding grounds in this 

 particular case of Tolstoi one-fourth of a mile away from the hauling 

 grounds, namely, at Middle Hill (the nearest point to that breeding 

 ground from which seals were driven in 1891 and 1892, see chart), but 

 it would be practically impossible to stampede this breeding ground by 

 any disturbing cause save of such magnitude as to be the subject of 

 common knowledge on the islands, and I know that no cause for such 

 a commotion occurred. 



Seals will stand a large amount of annoyance before leaviug their 

 harems, or indeed being permitted to do so by the bulls, and the man 

 does not live who can stampede rookery bulls. No smoke of vessels or 

 presence of ships ever cause the stampede of an entire breeding ground. 

 Such things have been reported, but no one has ever seen it, and it 

 would require persistent effort to accomplish such a result. I have had 

 cause to send natives on several occasions entirely across a rookery, 

 and no stampede ensued. I have thrown eggshells filled with blue 

 paint at female seals for the purpose of marking them until rocks and 

 seals were a mass of blue color, but with no disturbing effect. In the 

 prosecution of my investigations I have shot female seals with a noise- 

 less rifle upon a small detached breeding ground, have crawled in and 

 dragged out the seals killed without causing the other mothers to re- 

 cede more than twenty feet, and in fifteen minutes thereafter the breed- 

 ing grounds presented their wonted appearance. 



After two seasons observation I unhesitatingly state that I do not 

 believe there has ever been breeding grounds stampeded in such a 



