16 TESTIMONY 



The pup diiriug" the first mouths of its life is not anipliibious. It 

 does not eveu use its tlippers as the uiaturer seals. 

 Pup during first It moves iu a gait more like going on "all fours," 

 mon siio ampn i- ^^^]q q^^, adult scal uioves by drawing up the hind 

 quarters as a whole and then throwing itself for- 

 ward its own length. 



The young seals require the nourishing care of their mother for at 

 Eequire motiier's ^^^^^ ^<^^^i" moutlis, Jiud pups have becu killed ou the 

 care for first four islaud late iu November the stomachs of which were 

 '^<*°*^"- filled with milk. 



By the middle of July the mothers were going constantly back and 



Poddin"^ forth to sea; the pups, left more to themselves, collected 



'°^' in groups — "pods," as they are called — and by the last of 



July they worked their way down to the shore aud began learning to 



swim. 



The pups are afi-aid of the water; they have to learn to swim by re- 

 peated effort, and even when able to maintain them- 

 wimming. sclvcs iu the (piict waters will rush in frantic and 



ludicrous haste away from an approaching wave. I have taken i^ups 

 two or three weeks old and carried them out into still water, and they 

 awkwardly but in terror rapidly floundered toward the shore, although 

 they could have escaped me by going in the other direction. In three 

 trials, paddling in all about 60 feet, the pups became so exhausted 

 that they would have been droAvned had I not rescued them. If the 

 pups when collected in groups or pods near the shore were to be over- 

 taken by even a moderate surf they would be drowned, and such acci- 

 dents to them do occur on the island before they have entirely mas- 

 tered the art of swimming. 



The latter steps in the history of rookery life all facilitate, if indeed 

 they do not play an imi)ortant part in, the disorgani- 

 ro^erie!!^"^''^*^''" °^ zatiou ot the harem system. Just as soon as the pup 

 has reached the age of forming pods and making little 

 excursions hither and thither, the bull's authority diminishes, for his 

 control over the mother is lost in the presence of the bleat of the hun- 

 gry offspring. 



Up to the 20th of July the breeding grounds present a compact, 

 orderly arrangement of harems, but under the combined influence of 

 the completion of the serving of the females aiul the wandering of the 

 pups, disintegration begun at that date rapidly progresses. It is at 

 this time that the virgin cows of 2 years of age, or not older than 

 3, mingle more freely with the females and probably enter the mater- 

 nal ranks, for the unsuccessful males and maturer bachelors, no longer 

 deterred by the old males, also freely wander over the breeding 

 grounds. 



While the breeding grounds have been left undisturbed to their own 

 . ^ career, the haiding grounds have alternately been the 



nving an vi jng. ^^^^^^ of drivcs for the purpose of killing. The imma- 

 ture bachelors form the bulk of the seals that haul out upon these 

 grounds, and of them only the 3 and 4 year olds are taken for their 

 skins. 



The only seals killed for their pelts are those immature males that 



haul out upon the hauling grounds remote from the breeding grounds, 



and the handling of them causes no disturbance to the 



Only immature breeding femalcs. The number of bachelors permitted 



males killed. , i . Y • • a.- i -i-i ■ xi 



to be taken in any one season is entirely within tlie 

 control of the Treasury Department, which control has been exercised 



