500 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Unalaska, and reported that there were more seals outside Uniniak Pass than had 

 ever been seen there before. These seals must have been non-breeding seals, that is, 

 holluschickie or virgin and barren cows, possibly all three. 



Mortality among Young Seals. 



The causes that lead to the destruction of pups on the breeding islands arc, so far 

 as they have been noted by me — 



(a.) The wandering away of the young seals from the vicinity of the breeding- 

 grounds, and subsequent failure to find female seals from whom they can obtain 

 milk. This seldom occurs where a harciu is situated between a clitt' and the water, 

 or backed by rocky steeps, as at Lukannon rookery on St. Paul island, and parts of 

 North rookery on St. George Island. Pups can most easily lose themselves when on 

 such rookeries as Polaviua, Reef, or U])per Zapaduie on St. Paul Island, and Zapad- 

 nie on St. George Island. At these places they fre(|uently wander a short distance 

 to the rear of the occupied rookery-grouud, and are soon lost, especially if boulders 

 lie between them and the breeding-ground. A pup's confusion is naturally much 

 greater at such ])laces as Sea Lion Point or at Reef rookery, where, on going but a 

 short distance inland, cries of seals can be heard from both sides of the point. Two 

 or three pups so lost were seen by me e\ery time I visited Reef rookery, and seldom 

 with strength enough to move more than a few yards, if at all. These pups of course 

 die, and are, with few if any exceptions, dragged away and eaten by foxes. While 

 scattered dead pups were always to be seen on the open ground between the rook- 

 eries on Reef Point, none that had been dead more than a few" days were ever noted, 

 though partly-eateu carcasses were not infrequent, so that the number of carcasses 

 seen at any one time includes but a small part of the whole number that have died. 



During the mouths of July and August a great many females were watched as 

 they came from the water, and although in a few cases they were seen to go to the 

 extreme back of the occupied rookery-ground, none were seen to go beyond it. 



{b.) Mauy pups lose their lives when stampedes occur, and many others when 

 bulls dash amoug the breeding females and their young to prevent the escape of a 

 feuK\le from the harem. 



The scattered deail ]Mips that are to be seen on all rookeries have been destroyed 

 in either of these ways. 



(c. ) A few pups probably lose their lives in the surf, or by being dashed upon 

 rocks, but the number must, under ordinary circumstances, be very small. As early 

 as the 18th July, and on many occasions afterwards, pups were watched while in the 

 water close to the shore, and though they were often thrown with great force against 

 the rocks, no pup was ever seen to receive the slightest injury. These causes of 

 death to young seals were noted by me, but are obviously insufficient to account for 

 the great mortality among the pups on Polavina and Tolstoi rookeries. 



While standing beside the cauiera at Polavina rookery on the 22ud July I counted 

 143 dead pups ; they were of the same size as the living pups near them, and exhibited 

 no sign of having died of hunger, nor did it appear that they had been crushed to 

 death in a stampede, as those that could be seen were at or near the limit of the 

 rookery-ground. No estimate could be made of the number of dead pups that were 

 lying on this rookery, as the seals lay so closely together on its southern and eastern 

 slopes tliat but a small part of the breeding-grouud was visible. Professor Everuuiu 

 (a naturalist on United States Fish Commission steamer "Albatross "), who was 

 146 with me at this time, and who counted 129 dead pups, thought, witii me, that 

 if so many were to be seen at the outer edge of the rookery-ground, the whole 

 number must be very great, and about a month later (20th August) I had ample proof 

 that this was the case. I revisited Polavina rookery on this date with a n.ative, 

 Neh-an Maudrigan. This man speaks and understands English very well, and was 

 at this time on his way to Northeast Point to take ch.arge of the guard-house there. 

 A great nuiny dead pups were lyiug at the south eiul of the rookery, nearly or tjuite 

 as many as were to be seen on Tolstoi rookery. They were lying <m a sandy slope 

 between the water and the rocky ledge that sejiarates the lower from the higher parts 

 of this rookery-ground, and were rather more grouped together than at Tolstoi, from 

 10 to 100 lying quite close together, with spaces from 5 to 10 yards square between 

 the groups. There were individual dead pups scattered everywhere over this rookery 

 as on all others, but on that part of it referred to above the number was very great, 

 and the ground on which they were lying was quite deserted by living seals. They 

 extended as far as could be seen along the rookery, but as only the front sloping to 

 the south could be seen, the number beyond the point to the northward could not be 

 estimated. It was at the south end of this rookerv that the British Conmiissioners 

 report having seen a few hundred dead pups in 1891. Photographs taken the 5th 

 August show this ground with the breeding seals still upon it, but many dead pups 

 may also be seen. The native Neh-an Mandrigau was asked how he accounted for 

 so many dead pupa ; he replied that he thought they had been killed when the old 



