RELATING TO PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 21 



mer of 1870; I returned to the United States in tlie foil of that 

 year. The following season I was appointed to take charge of 

 both St. Panl and St. George islands. I arrived at the islands in 

 July, 1871, and remained there till the latter part of April, 1872. Dur- 

 ing my stay on the islands I made careful examination into the 

 habits and nature of the seal and also read and studied the records 

 left by the Russian Government in relation to the Pribilof Islands. 

 The full grown male seals commence to appear about ^^^^^ 

 the islands during the latter part of April or first of 

 May. They come from the southeast through the passes between the 

 Aleutian Ivslands. The bulls, as these seals are called, do not immedi- 

 ately land, but swim about surveying the coast; finally, they.come on 

 shore at the breeding rookeries, invariably selecting a shore covered 

 with bowlders and avoiding sand beaches, for the reason, I believe, that 

 when the pups are born on these rookeries they may not be swept 

 away by the surf. I believe also that a. bull comes back to the same 

 rookery every season; this belief was formed from information I re- 

 ceived from several of the natives of the islands, who told me that they 

 had at one time cut the ears of some pups so that they could be readily 

 distinguished ; that when the pups were grown they had noticed each 

 one on a particular rookery, and that in the years following the rook- 

 ery had the same occupant. 



The female seals begin to arrive the latter part of May, going di- 

 rectly to the breeding rookeries. The young male ^^^^ 

 seals from 1 to 5 years of age, called " bachelors," come *'^''' 

 about the same time as the females, but do not go onto Baei.eiora. 

 the breeding rookeries, evidently fearing the old bulls. These bachelors 

 haul up by themselves on narrow places along the shore left between 

 the breeding rookeries, and from these jioints proceed inland much 

 farther than the breeding rookeries. The seals killed on the islands 

 for their skins are these bachelors, those of from 2 to 4 

 years old being carefully selected. Under no circum- kiiieV ^'^ ** "'^ 

 stances is a female seal killed. In a " drive" the natives 

 drive the seals from the hauling grounds a little way, Dnvinff. 

 separate the young killable males, and allow the re- 

 mainder to return to the water or the hauling grounds. Then these 

 young males so selected are driven to the killing grounds and there 

 dispatched with clubs. During the entire time I was on the islands I 

 never saw a single seal killed by overdriving. 



At the time I was on the islands I do not think there were any fish at all 

 within 3 miles of the islands, and that the seals to feed 

 had to go farther than that from land. This belief is mnl^s onsiamif '" ^ 

 founded on statements made me by natives on the 

 islands, and also from the fact that fresh fish were seldom eaten upon 

 the islands. Very soon after a female lands she gives birth to a pup. 

 I think that she never gives birth to more than one, p i, ^ 

 and that she only suckles her own pup. During the landkr 

 two sealing seasons I was on the islands I only saw a 

 very few dead pups, and these had been killed by Dead pups, 

 the larger seals crushing them. I have never seen a 

 pu]) that was starved to death, or which had been abandoned by its 

 mother. A pup is at least a month old before it learns to swim. Be- 

 fore that it not only can not swim, but is afraid of the water. If a pui) 

 should be born in the Avater it would unquestionably 

 be drowned; but I believe that it is an absolute im- posslu^*' ^'"^^ ™' 

 possibihty for successful birth to take place in the water, 

 for the reason that the mother would die of exhaustion before or while 



