598 TESTIMONY RELATING TO ANTARCTIC SEALING. 



aud must be four or five years old before lie has strength and endur- 

 ance enough to maintain a jilace on the rookery. 

 The battles for position between the rival " wigs" are most fierce, but 



at last they all get their places, and await the coming 

 " ^^•''P ^^^^^■' of the " clap matches," or females. About the 10th of 

 November the females begin to arrive, and land on the breeding rook- 

 eries. Each " wig " gets about him as many " clap matches " as he can, 

 the average number, I should say, beiug from ten to twenty. The 

 "wig" never allows the '^ clap match" to leave his harem for some time, 

 always seizing her and dragging her back if she attempts to go into the 

 water. Almost immediately on landing the female drops her pup, it 

 seldom being more than a day after they come on shore. A " clap 



match" gives birth to oidy one pup, except in rare 

 ^^'^^' instances, Avhen she has two. I never saw but one case 



where a "clapmatch" had more than one pup at a birth. Within a few 

 days after the birth of the pup the "clap match" is served by the 

 " wig." After being served the " wig" lets her go into the water to feed, 

 as she has to do in order that she may nurse her pup. The pup when 

 born weiglis about four or five pounds, and is covered with shiny black 

 hair, beneath which there is no far.. When four or five months old this 

 black hair is shed, and new hair of a brownish-gray color comes out, 

 and the fur appears beneath it. A imp does not go into the water until 

 he is three or four months old, and then he works in gradually from the 

 puddles into the surf, and I have seen "clap matches" in stormy 

 weather pick up their pups in their mouths and carry them out of reach 



of the waves. A pup born in the water or on a bed of 

 wrteror"onkei'p° '° ^^^1^ would Certainly be drowned, and during all my 



ex[)erience I never saw a black pup seal on kelp or in 

 the water. Until the pup sheds his black hair he is entirely dependent 

 on his mothers' milk for sustenance. 



I have never seen a " clap match " suckling more than one pup, and it 

 is my impression that a "clap match" would not nurse any pup except 

 her own, for I have seen her throw other pups aside and pick out one par- 

 ticular one from the whole number on the rookery. A black pup walks 

 on all fours, raising his body more from the ground than an older seal, 

 and appears to be more of a land animal than his elders. All seals can 

 move very rapidly on land when forced to do so, and seem to have re- 

 markable powers of land locomotion when the formation of their flip- 

 pers and body are taken into consideration. The young " wigs " or 

 nonbreeding males, not being allowed on the rookeries, herd by them- 

 selves, and never molest the harems. About the 20th of November we 

 used to begin killing, and up to that time the "wigs" had never left 

 their positions to feed or drink. I do not know how much longer they 

 would have staid there fasting if we had not molested them. Young 

 "wigs" go into the water, but during the breeding season hang around 

 the rookeries, never going far from shore. If there had been strict 

 regulations enforced, allowing us to kill only young "wigs," and not to 

 disturb the breeding seals, I am convinced, and have no doubt, that 



all these rookeries would be full of seals to-day. It has 

 na^hfnortheseai™* bccu the indiscriminate killing which has caused the 



practical extermination of fur-seals in the southern 

 hemisphere. 



George Comer. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me, a notary public in and for the 

 District of Columbia, U. S. A., this 15th day of June, 1892. 

 [l. s.] Sevellon a. Brown. 



