92 THE FUR SKALS OF THE PRIBH.OF ISLANDS. 



skeleton. Owing to the long time that had elapsed since death it was not possible to 

 make as critical an examination as might be desired. 



Losses from such cnuses as the above must naturally be few and form but a 

 triHing factor in the total death rate, still it is interesting to fuul such cases among 

 wild animals. 



Killed by a lish bone sounds like the heading of a newspaper item, and yet one cow 

 seal was found dead from an accident, not in swallowing, but in unswallowing the 

 remains of a pollock. As noted in the chapter on food bones or other haid substances 

 swallowed by seals, they are sooner or later regurgitated, bones of good-sized i)oliock 

 being thus disposed of, usually with succe.ss. In the present instance the bone had 

 lodged crosswise in the larynx, i)erforating hotli the right and left sides, though finally 

 working through tlie left side for more than half its length, nuiking so bad a cut 

 that death may be said to have resulted from tlu^ combined effects of strangulation 

 and loss of blood. The cow was found washed up on the beach, and an autopsy 

 revealed no injury save a slight congestion of the lungs and the ])resence of an 

 unaccountable quantity of clotted blood in the stomach. While skinning the animal 

 the bone was found fixed in the nniscles of the neck and subse([uent examination 

 revealed the extent of the danmge which had been done. 



Not only were few dead adult seals found, but very few that were seriously injured, 

 tliis for the reason that in the majority of cases serious injiiry promi)tly leads to death 

 where the struggle for existence is so severe as among the fur seals. A crippled 

 bachelor shot on Zoltoi wns i)robably the victim of an encounter with a killer, the 

 location and extent of his injuries being just such as would have resulted from the 

 bite of a pursuer, the right hind Hipper being bitten, both sides of the pelvis crushed, 

 two ribs and the processes of several vertebrae broken. (See PI. XX.) As a direct 

 result of these in juries, which involved the spinal cord, this young bull was i)aralyzed 

 in his hind (juarters, dragging them laboriously along the ground, and another largo 

 bachelor, seen on Kitovi, but unfortunately not secured, was very ])r()b;il)ly hurt in a 

 similar manner. On October 10 the natives brought in the remains of a. pup said to 

 have been destroyed by a killer, and on October 13 a female was found whose death 

 was also ascribed to the same cause, while two pups were seen each minus a flii)per. 

 A cow on Zai)adni had lost a hind flipper, jmssibly from tlie bite of a killer, and an 

 old bull was observed on /ai)adni for several consecutive years minus tiie greater 

 l)ai't of the fore Hipper, and yet thus handicapped able to nuiintain his jdace on the 

 rookery. A cow with a broken or dislocated right fore leg was noticed on the North 

 rookery of St. George, and a young mnle similarly cri])])led was seen on Zoltoi sands. 



As to the number of seals, young or old, which ])erish when absent fVom the 

 islands and the causes of their deaths we know absolutely nothing, but wind and sea, 

 or anything which leads to interference with the food supply, arc probably tl'C fur 

 seal's worst natural enemies, while ice lingering about the islands in spring would be 

 very deadly to the females seeking the shore to bring forth their young. Once, indeed, 

 tlie Pribilof herd seems to have been reduced to its lowest ebb from this very cause, 

 the scarcity of seals during and for some time after 1830 having been brought about 

 by the persistence of ice floes about the islands long into .Inne, causing bulls and 

 cows alike to perish by thousands. 



The only two species of sharks which could ])ossibly eat seals are fortunately 

 rare, even in southern waters, and deaths from this sdurce aie probably not worth 



