RELATING TO PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 33 



most casual observer, that tlie rookeries were becoming devastated. It 

 is positively a fact that there are not near as many 

 seals occupying- the rookeries now, at the present time, ro^kede^!^' ®''''*^'"'" 

 as there were when I first saw the islands. The va- 

 cant spaces on the breeding- and hauling grounds have increased in 

 size from year to year since 1884, and have been very noticeable lor the 

 last four or five years. 



When I first went to the seal islands the seals were actually increas- 

 ing in numbers, instead of diminishing. Two facts 

 presented themselves to me later on. fi,^t visltf °^ """"^^^ "' 



First. Seals were arriving- each year in diminished 

 numbers. 



Second. At the same time that the female seals were decreasing in 

 numbers, the number of dead pups on the rookeries was increasing. 



There lias been no change in the manner of conducting the business 

 ashore, but there has been added the open sea hunting 

 industry in the waters surrounding the rookeries, and anagemen . 

 which industry, as is well known, has rapidly increased since 1884, 

 until now it has assumed grand proportions. It is a well-known fact 

 that the female seals leave the islands and go great dis- ^ , , ,. 



, _!' x- 1 1 -i- • 1 1 XI J- J? Females feeains', 



tances lor lood, and it is clearly proven that many ot 



them do not return, as the number of i)ups starved to death on the 



rookeries denidnstrates. 



The old mother seal will not nurse any but its own offspring, and can 

 single it out of a band of thousands even after an ab- 

 sence of days from the islands. The difference between own pup"^^*^^ °°^^ '*^* 

 a well-nourished pup, and one starving to death is 

 also easily recognized; one being plump and lively, growing extremely 

 raiudly, the other slowly dwindling away, its body becoming lean, long 

 and lanky, the head being the largest and most conspicuous part. The 

 poor little thing finally diops from sheer exhaustion in its tracks, being 

 only a matter of time before it succumbs to starvation. In reference to 

 the time a newly-born seal could live without its moth- yitaiit of 

 er's care, I can say that I have known one particular ^^' y° p"'P^- 

 pup seal to have i)Ositively existed for a period of at least two weeks or 

 more from the moment of birth with not over a pint or so of cow's 

 milk, at the most, Avhich had to be forced down its throat. Perhai)s 

 this will be best understood by explaining the circumstances. 



Little ^' Jimmie," as this particular pup was called, was the child of 

 adverse circumstances as his mother happened accidentally to be caught 

 in a large drive and could not be separated from the herd until the 

 killing ground Avas reached. Shortly after being parted out and al- 

 lowed to go free, on her way to the water, she hurriedly gave birth to 

 this pup and continued on her journey. The pu^) was watched care- 

 fully for a few days, and when it was thought to have been deserted a 

 kind-hearted employe of the company, Mr. Allis, brought it into the 

 village with a double view of trying to save its Mfe as well as to make 

 a pet of it. For the first few days, as nobody could manage to make 

 him eat and as he would generally get the best of some friendly finger 

 in these attempts at feeding, he was let severely alone. Then followed 

 various contrivances, mechanical and otherwise, for holding his head 

 so as to feed him with a spoon or a nursing bottle, but all to no pur- 

 pose, for he would get most of the milk everywhere but where it was 

 intended to go. This went on for all of two weeks or more. I then 

 equipped myself with a large syringe and a flexible tube, and about a 

 pint or so of warm, fresh cow's milk. Little "Jimmie's*' mouth was 

 2716 — VOL 11 3 



