502 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



to take milk from the breasts of cows as tbey landed, and would follow tbem for as 

 great a distance as their strengtb would permit, retuniini^ slowly to the water's edge 

 when the cow was lost sight of. Had the dead pups seen ou Tolstoi and other rook- 

 eries died of starvation, they would without doubt have been found in masses near 

 the sea, not scattered over all parts of the breeding-ground, and were it possible that 

 tbey had been killed by the surf they would luive been lying in windrows, as was the 

 case at iSouth-west Bay, where, on the 23rd August, 133 dead pups were found lying 

 aiuong sea-Aveed at different distances from the water. Bare spaces from 10 to 30 

 yards in width, on which no dead pups lay, separated these windrows of sea-weed, 

 shoAving that the high-water mark had changed from day to day. The i)ups at this 

 place were in all stages of decomposition ; a lew bad died within a day or two, while 

 little renuiiued of others but their bones, witb fragments of skin attached. Pups 

 :ire constantly' swimming across South-west Bay from Upper to Lower Zapadnie 

 rookeries, and it is probable that those lying on the beach represent nearly all that 

 bad been drowned, or bad from any cause died in the water in the inniiediate vicinity 

 of this small bay, as the shore is steejj and rocky on both sides of it, and anything 

 floating about is almost certain to be thrown up on this sandy beach. 

 • At Jy'ortb-east Point, on the 20th August, all the rookery-ground visible from 

 Hutchinson Hill was carefully examined with a lield-glass. A few dead pups were 

 to be seen here and there on all parts of the breeding-grounds, and in one place at 

 no great distance from the water, but on higher ground than could be reached by 

 the sea, at least 500 were visible from Hutchiuson Hill. The ground ou which they 

 laj' much resembled that on which dead pups were at Tolstoi and Polaviua rookeries, 

 but was not of nearly so great an extent. They lay scattered about as at Tolstoi, 

 not in groups as at Polaviua. A careful examination was made by nie of all the 

 rookeries on St. George Island, both before and after the dead pu])s bad been noted 

 ou Si. Paul, but none were seen there with the, exception of a very few scattered 

 ones, such as are to be seen on all rookeries. 



Whites and natives ou the islands were unanimous in saying that the mothers of 

 the pups found dea.d on the rookeries had been killed at sea, and that their young 

 bad then starved. During the mouths of July, August, and September, I had fre- 

 quent oi)[)ortunities of conversing with the oflicers of ueai'ly all the ships stationed 

 in Behnug Sea, both those of the United States and of Great Britain, and all agreed 

 that it was not possible for a schooner to ha\e been in and out of Behring Sea in 1892 

 without being captured (see statement in Appendix (C) of Captain Parr, the 

 148 Senior British Naval Officer stationed at Behring Sea). The cruizes of the 

 various ships were carefully arranged by Captains Parr and Evans, and so 

 planned that no part of Behring Sea to which sealing vessels were likely to go was 

 left unprotected. H. M. S. "Melpomene" and "Daphne," and United States ships 

 "Mohican," " Yorktown," "Adams," "Ranger," "Rush," and "Corwin," were 

 engaged in this work. No skins worth taking into account were found ou the small 

 A'essels that were seized, and most of those they had on board were doubtless taken 

 outsiile Behring Sea, so that to whatever cause the excessive mortality among these 

 young seals is to be attributed, sealing at sea can have had nothing to do with it in 

 1892. 



Without fully indorsing what Bryant says on this subject, he may be quoted. He 

 writes: " When the sun shines for two or three hours and the rocks become heated, 

 there are occasioual deaths among the beachmasters and very young ])ups from sun- 

 stroke, the symptoms being a nervous jerking of the limbs followed by convulsions 

 and death. Fortunately the occurrences are rare, and it was only in 1874 that any 

 appreciable nuuiber were lost from this cause. That year manj' joung seals died 

 about the 1st August.* 



Were sunstroke suggested as the probable cause tliat led to the death of the pups 

 found on St. Paul Island in 1891 and 1892, the positions in which they were found and 

 the nature of the ground in which they lay wouhl favour this tlieory. Were the 

 sun to shine for even a few hours upon the smooth hard ground of the rookeries, it 

 would become so hot that serious injury or death to the young seals might be the 

 consequence, as it is well known that even the old seals dislike and are seriously 

 affected by heat. 



Special inquiry was made by me at the Commander Islands during the first week 

 in September as to whether young seals had been found dead in 1892 in' larger num- 

 bers than usual, and several of the oldest natives were questioned by me ou this 

 point. I was told by them that none had been seen there but a few that had been 

 killed by the surf or had waiulered away from the rookery-grounds, and yet there 

 ■were many schooners sailing t'voiu United States ports sealing in the vicinity of these 

 islands during the whole season, and in July and August a great many schooners 

 came from the American coast and sealed in Asiatic waters; many thousand skins 

 were taken there, probably more than in any one season on the American side of 

 Behring Sea, but no increased mortality was noticeable in the number of dead pups 



* "Monograph of North American Pinnipeds," p. 408. 



