96 TESTIMONY 



plump condition and active aggresive conduct of the healthy appearing 

 pups. 



The majority of the pups, like all healthy nursing animals, were plump 

 and lairly rolling in fat. I have watched the female seals draw up out of 

 the water, each "pick out its pup from the hundreds of young seals sport- 

 ing near the water's edge, and with them scramble to a clear spot on the 

 rookery, and lying down give them suck. Although I saw pups nurs- 

 ing in ii great many cases, yet I never saw one of the sickly looking 

 pups receiving any attention from the female. They seemed to be 

 deserted. 

 The cause of the great mortality amongst the seal pups seemed to 



me to have ceased to act, in great part, before my first 

 of'^death^"^^' ^^^^^ visits to the rookeries; for subsequent visits did not 



show as great an increase in the masses of dead as 

 I would have expected, had the causes still been in active operation. 

 It seemed to me that there were fewer sickly looking pups at each sub- 

 sequent visit. This grew to be more and more the case as the season 

 advanced. When I visited the rookeries for the i^urpose of examining 

 the dead bodies, it was with extreme difficulty that carcasses could be 

 found fresh enough to permit of a satisfactory examination. I exam- 

 ined a large number of carcasses. All showed an entire absence of 



fatty tissue between the skin and muscular tissue. 

 na^onV"^'"''' '''''""'" ^lic omcutunj in all cases was destitute of fat. These 



are the positions where fat is usually present in all ani- 

 mals. Well nourished young animals always have a large amount ot 

 fat in these localities. The few carcasses which were found in a fair 

 state of preservation were examined more thoroughly. The stomachs 

 were found empty and contracted, but presented no evidence of dis- 

 ease. The intestines were empty, save in a few cases, where small 

 amounts of fecal matter were found in the large intestines. A careful 

 examination of the intestines failed to discover any evidence of disease. 

 The heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys were in a healthy condition. 



Such is the evidence cm which I have founded my oinnion that the 



cause of the great mortality during 1891, amongst the young seals on 



St. Paul Island, Bering Sea, was caused by the deprivation of mother's 



, , ,, milk. The result of my investigation is, that there was 



Cause of death. ^ , ^■, ■, ■ ^ i • ^ 



great mortality exclusively amongst nursing seals. 

 Secondly, the cause of tliis mortality seemed to have been abated pari 

 passu with the abatement of sea sealing. Thirdly, the presence of 

 emaciated sickly looking pups which were apparently deserted by their 

 mothers. Fourthly, the plump healthy appearance of all the pups I 

 saw nursing. Fifthly, the emaciated condition of the dead. Sixthly, 

 the absence of food in the stomachs, and their contracted condition. 

 Seventhly, the absence of digested food in the small intestines. 

 Eighthly, the absence of even fecal matter, save in small amounts in a 

 few cases. Ninthly, the absence of structural changes in the viscera 

 or other parts of the bodies to account for the death. 



J. C. S. Akerly, Ph. B., M. D. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 16th day of April, A. D. 

 1802. 

 [SEAL,.] Clement Bennett, 



■ Rotary ruhlic. 



