RELATING TO PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 41 



the same spot. Tliey are attracted to the islands in preference to otlier 

 places by closely defined hereditary habits of migration, which take 

 them from and to their breeding- places with constant regularity, varied 

 only within the limit of a very few dnys by meteorological conditions. 

 The isolation and climate no doubt first induced their habitat upon 

 these islands. If there has been any authentic observation of the 

 birth of seals at other points on the northwest coast of ISTorth America, 

 which I very much doubt, the case was anomalous and accidental. No 

 doubt the young are occasionally aborted, out of season and out of 

 place, and such birth may, perhaps, have been witnessed, but i-hould 

 not form the basis for any valuable deduction in locating the home of 

 the animals. 



The young seals, called "pups," are born in June and July upon the 

 grounds on these islands known as "breeding rook- 

 eries." They are at birth very clumsy and helpless, ^"^^' 

 possessing little ability to move about on land; and if born in the 

 Mater, or swept from the shore soon after the birth, as I have several 

 times witnessed, by the outgoing surf of heavy seas, perish from in- 

 ability to swim. At this time they are simply land 

 aninmls, with less aquatic instinct and less ability to ^^abie to swim. 

 sustain themselves in water than newly hatched ducklings. When the 

 pups are a few days old the mothers leave them (generally soon after 

 coitus upon the rookeries with the old male) to go to the feeding grounds, 

 returning at intervals of one to three or four days to suckle their young. 

 The pups do not appear to recognize their own dams, 

 but the mother distinguishes her own offspring with i,y^"s mother!'''^ °"^^ 

 unerring accuracy, and allows no other to draw her 

 milk. The i)ups remain upon the rookeries at or near the place where 

 they are born until about five or six weeks old, when 

 they congregate in groups or "pods," and about the ° "^°' 

 same time begin to make excursions down to, and, after considerable 

 hesitation and repeated trials and flo.underings, out into ^g i t i 

 the water, where they become, within a few days, expert *''™"°g 

 swimmers. From this time, say about the 10th of August, until the 

 latter part of October or November, the young seals remain alternately 

 upon the land and in the water, as their comfort may dictate. They are 

 greatly iufiuenced in this respect by the weather; very calm, pleasant 

 days, as well as particularly rainy ones, inducing them to remain in 

 the water, while during violent storms and heavy surf nearly all are 

 found ui)on shore. But during this whole period, after they have ac- 

 quired the ability to swim, they remain the major part of the time upon 

 land. It should be particularly noted that they are not amphibious 

 until several weeks old. 



Early in November, convoyed by the older seals, the pups leave the 

 island and goto the southward, apxDarently moved there- Miorati n 

 to not only by migratory instincts, but because the ^^^^ "^^' 

 weather at the islands at tliis time becomes unendurably severe for them, 

 and perhaps for the further reason that a sufficient fiwd supply for all 

 can not be found in the immediate vicinity of the islands. But the infer- 

 ence is reasonable that they prefer to stay upon or near the islands at 

 this time, from the fact that as Ion gas the weather is comfortable the pups 

 and nonbreeding seals may always be found there in large numbers; 

 and even after snow falls, and severe weather has been recorded, the 

 nonbreeding males, upon the recurrence of milder ^ . , , 



,, '^ . '-^11 T T -ji • j^i Leave isLmrls onlv 



Aveather, agani resort to land, and have, withm the when forced by weatii- 

 time of my connection with the business, been repeatedly ^'^ °'" ^^"^^ °^ ^°°^- 



