RELATING TO ST. GEORGE ISLAND. 159 



My work as tlie leader of tlie "sealing gang" gave me as perfect 

 opportniiity as could be had for studying the habits and i)eculiarities 

 of the seal and determining the best manner of caring for them. 



The condition of seal life was the principal topic of discussion and 

 thought during the summer months, and the only one of i)articular in- 

 terest. All became familiar with it, and watched every change in the 

 breeding grounds or number of killable seals as carefully as a farmer 

 watches the increase or decrease of his flocks and herds. 



The compact order in which the breeding seals arrange themselves 

 upon the "rookeries" upon their arrival iu the spring, completely lill- 

 ing the ground first taken before spreading over adjoining space, en- 

 ables one to see at a glance, as the season advances, whether, if he re- 

 members the land marks to which they filled out in former years, they 

 have grown more or less numerous. 



I did not notice any falling off in the size of the "rookeries" from 

 the land nmrks to which they came when I first saw 

 them during the first two years I was on the island, No decitase in 



T 1, "-,.,. . •' , ,. J.1 i ii 1 Size of rookeries du- 



and all agreed, in discussmg the matter, that the seals ring i884 ana i885. 

 had never been more numerous than they then were; 

 but in the following years, and particularly in 1888 and ^ease"'"^"''"*'^*'" 

 1889, no other opinion was heard than that the ani- 

 mals had very greatly diminished, and in this opinion I fully coincided. 



Dead "pup" seals, which seemed to have starved to death, grew 

 very numerous on the "rookeries" these latter years; Dead khs 

 audi noticed when driving the "bachelor" seals for eai pups. 

 killing, as we started them up from the beach, that many small "pups," 

 half starved, apparently motherless, had wandered away from the 

 breeding grounds and became mixed with the killable seals. The na- 

 tives called my attention to these waifs, sa^'ing that it did not use to 

 be so, and that the mothers were dead ; otherwise they would be u])on 

 the breeding grounds. 



While 1 was upon the island the seal herd was, I believe, most wisely 

 managed, so far as we were able to control them; but 

 we could not prevent the destruction which was carried a^agemen . 

 on by Victoria and San Francisco seal-hunters from vessels and boats 

 beyond our reach. 



I never noticed any disproportion of the sexes that would lead me to 

 suspect that the "bull" seals were too few, nor more 

 than an occasional barren "cow." These latter were so betweelrthe^sexes" 

 few as to excite no remark; but if any such dispropor- 

 tion did, in fact, exist in 1888 and 1889 it was the fault of those who 

 killed them at sea, because it never occurred at all until the marine 

 hunters became numerous and aggressive. I mention this matter here 

 because, since I left the island, 1 have heard it asserted that the mis- 

 management there caused the decrease of seal life. The management 

 there was just such as I would follow if all the seals belonged to me. 



The driving of the male seals to the killing grounds was done very 

 carefully. If the weather was warm or dry they were r, ■ ,- „ 

 allowed frequent opportunity to rest. I am sure the "\ing. 

 driving did not hurt them iu the least. 



1 was reared on a farm, and have been familiar from boyhood with 

 the breeding of domestic animals, and particularly with the rearing 

 and management of young animals; hence a comparison of the young 

 seals with the young of our common domestic species is most natural. 

 From my experience with both I am able to declare positively that it 

 is easier to manage and handle young seals than calves or lambs. 



