394 TESTIMONY 



did not deposit excrement upon their breeding groundsin the same way 

 that all other animals of this class do. 



As already stated above, I was attached to the steamer Corwin during 

 . the past summer, and I made all the examinations oi 



the stomachs of the seals referred to in Captain Hooper's 

 report, covering, in all, thirty-three seals. I annex hereto photographs ol 

 two of the seals which were dissected and examined by me on the deck 

 of the steamer Corwin. These seals were taken on the 2nd day of Au- 

 gust, 1892, at a distance of about 175 miles from the islands. The pho- 

 tographs exhibit the mammary glands and convey a good idea of the 

 considerable size of these glands, which in all cases were filled with 

 milk. The inference is unavoidable that the pup is a voracious feeder, 

 and this inference is in keeping with the observations I have made on 

 the rookeries where 1 have repeatedly seen pups suckle for half an hour 

 at a time. The mammary gland is very widely spread over the lower 

 surface of the animal ; beginning between the fore flippers, in fact at 

 the anterior of the sternum, it extends well up under the armpits and 

 back to the pubic bones. The milk glands are quite thick and com- 

 X>letely charged with milk. The photographs, especially the first one, 

 exhibit the milk streaming from the glands on to the deck. 



Annexed to the report of Captain Hooper is a table giving the results 

 of the examination of forty-one (41) seals which were killed in Bering- 

 Sea in 1892. It appears that of this number twenty -two (22) were 

 nursing seals. The photographs hereto annexed show exactly the 

 way all of these nursing female seals looked when cut open on the deck 

 of the Corwin. 



From the fact that among the females thus taken and examined there 

 were found mostly nursing cows, with a small number 

 of virgin cows, it is reasonable to conclude that there are 

 practically no barren females swimming about in the sea unattached to 

 the islands, or that at any rate, if such seals exist, they are rarely, if 

 ever, taken. In all my experience I never saw anything to lead me to 

 the conclusion that there is such a thing as a u barren " female. In 

 the case of the virgin cows a careful examination of the uterus proved 

 them to be too immature for conception. 



In the stomachs of many of the seals examined as above stated there 



were found large quantities of fish, mainly codfish. 



rood of females. There . g nothing surpr i s ing i n this fact, that codfish 



should be found in the stomachs of surface feeders such as seals are. 

 While taken at the bottom, the codfish is not restricted to deep water. 

 It is found from the shallows along the shore out to the banks where 

 fishermen usually take them. They are often taken at intermediate 

 depths, but fish taken at the bottom are, as a rule, larger. 



The cod is a voracious feeder upon squid which abound at the surface. 

 In Alaskan waters I have taken hundreds with the dip net, after 

 attracting them with the electric light of the Albatross.* In its 

 frequent migrations from bank to bank the cod passes over tracts of 

 oeean where the water is of profound depth. It is a regular feeder 

 upon herring and many other fishes which school at the surface, and 

 in Alaskan waters frequently follows the fisherman's bait from the 

 bottom to the surface. 



As a result of my combined observations upon land and water, as 

 hereinbefore detailed, I have no hesitation in stating positively that 

 soon after a female gives birth to her young she leaves the island in 



•See Report of Work of Albatross, Bull. U. S. Fish Com.. 1888. 



