RELATING TO FUR-SEALS AND SEALSKIN INDUSTRY. 389 



wholesale manner as to cause the death of pups. If such occurred in 

 1801 and 1892 it is certainly extraordinary that only the starvlings met 

 death. 



The true explanation of the deaths upon Tolstoi this year is not readily 

 found, and must be sought in local causes other than those indicated 

 above, and I am confident that to none of those causes can be justly 

 attributed the dead pups of 1891 and 1892. The following explanation, 

 based upon my acquaintance with the facts, is offered in a tentative 

 way : 



A glance at the map will show that the location and topographic 

 character of this rookery have no counterpart elsewhere on the island. 

 The rookeries upon which deaths are infrequent are those which are 

 narrow and upon the rear of which are precipitous bluffs that prevent 

 the wandering of the pups backward. The larger part of Tolstoi, as 

 will be seen from the map, extends far back and has great lateral di- 

 mensions — much of it is composed of drifting sands and it has rather 

 a steep inclination down to the sea. The shore is an open one, and the 

 surf, either gentle or violent, is almost constantly present. As the 

 time for learning to swim approaches the pups find it easy to come 

 down the incline. They congregate in Large numbers upon the sandy 

 shore and begin their swimming lessons. This is at a period when 

 they are s+ill immature and not very strong. The buffeting of the 

 waves exhaust them and coming ashore they either wander off, or strug- 

 gling a certain distance up the incline, made more difficult of ascent by 

 the loose sand of which it is composed, lie down to rest and sleep and 

 are overlooked by their mothers returning from the sea. I have seen 

 mother seals go up the entire incline seeking their pups. 



I find nothing in the history of dead pups upon the island this year 

 which does not confirm my belief that the great mortality of the season 

 of 1891 was due to pelagic sealing in Bering Sea. Had it not been so 

 there is no reason why the deaths in 1892 should not have been as 

 widely distributed and as great as they were the previous year. 



During the past summer particular care was taken to have the 

 drives conducted in the same manner as in previous . . 

 years in order that the effect of driving upon the 

 young males might be noted. 



From June 10th (the day after my arrival) to the close of the season 

 on August 9th, there were eleven (11) drives made — the longest one 

 being from Middle Hill, about two miles from the village killing ground. 

 With two exceptions no drives were made from the same hauling 

 grounds except at intervals of two weeks. As the killing this year 

 was limited to 7,500 there could be but few seals taken each week, and 

 this necessitated turning back to the water, about two hundred (200) 

 yards distant from the killing ground, from 75 to 85 per cent of those 

 driven up and gave an excellent opportunity to observe the effect of 

 driving upon large bands of seals. 



In driving, it is true that if the weather is unfavorable a few may die 

 en route, or in anticipation of their death are clubbed, skinned, and 

 their pelts added to the quota. It is also true that sometimes there 

 are manifestations of weariness and exhaustion among the driven seals; 

 that driving causes some excitement; that occasionally smothering oc- 

 curs, and that there are other episodes happening on and about the 

 killing field which are necessarily incident to and must always form 

 part of the killing of seals on land, and which are likely to obscure the 

 judgment of the observer or be alloAved to assume undue prominence 

 in his mind. But the chief question is the potency of these episodes as 



