RECORD OP CHARLES BRYANT. 267 



October 31. — A drive for food from Tolstoi gave 163 seals, all stagy. The drive 

 contained a good proportion of 5 and 6 year olds ' with a few females. 



November 12. — It took the sea-lion drive six days to come down from Northeast 

 Point; 188 were killed. 



November 15.— Pups were driven from Kitovi and Lukanin for food; only 400 

 were obtained. The earlier-born pups have left the island. 



November 16.— Pups were driven from the south side of the Eeef and 1,172 taken. 



November 17.— Another drive from the Eeef gave 1,172. 



November 19.— The Eeef was redriven^ and 706 were obtained. These must have 

 come ashore since the former drives. 



November 22,— An attempt to drive pups from Tolstoi failed on account of their 

 having left. Eeports from Zapadni show a few youiig seals there. Females without 

 pups are on the shore and quite a number of bachelors are on the hauling ground of 

 Tolstoi. 



November 23. — Men were sent to Zapadni to drive pups, but they were all gone 

 and holostiaki had to be driven instead. This is the first time since the transfer of 

 the islands to the United States that there has been diflaculty in getting the young 

 seals, there usually being considerable numbers late in December.'* The theory of the 

 natives is that the greater mass of young seals (pups) were driven into the water 

 during the severe snowstorm and gale on the 30th of October, and that they were 

 unable to find the shore again and had gone away, while their mothers, being stronger 

 and better able, returned to the shore without them.* 



November 29.— A visit to the Eeef shows that most of the females have gone and 

 that there are only a few bachelors on the point. 



December 2. — Eeports from Northeast Point show very few seals there. It is plain 

 that the seals have left the island about a month earlier than usual.^ 



December 9.^A visit to Tolstoi discloses the fact that there are 200 or 300 seals 

 hauled up there. 



December 13. — A food drive is made from Tolstoi; 825 are taken; a few are stagy. 

 The entire drove contained about 5 per cent of half buUs,^ 50 per cent of 2, 3, and 4 year 

 olds, and the remainder yearlings. An examination of Eeef rookery shows a few seals 

 in the water, but none on shore; a few hundred are on Sea Lion Eock. Eeports from 

 Northeast Point and other rookeries show that the seals have nearly all left the island. 



December 21.^ — A few seals are reported at Northeast Point. 



' See reference to scarcity of young bulls under earlier dates for the year. 



2 This aud the two preceding entries are interesting as showing the effect of disturbance on the 

 rookeries. 



3 The records of other years show that it was usual for the pups to leave with their mothers in 

 the first half of November. ■ It is therefore not strange that they should be wanting in the latter part 

 of November. 



■i Captain Bryant observes, in this connection, that Kitovi and Lukanin rookeries would 

 ordinarily have furnished the required 4,000 or 5,000 pups — male pups, of course. This gives some 

 index to the size of the rookeries then, their yield being about 10,000 pups. Captain Bryant remarks 

 also that we may expect a larger proportion of the pups to be lost at sea. The thought seems never 

 to have occurred to him that the slaughter of the pups so earnestly sought for food tended to still 

 further diminish them. As a matter of fact no scarcity of killable seals was noted from this cause in 

 1879, when tlie quota must have been made up of these pups. 



«See later entries in the log showing the return of the seals. 



« See eailier notes on scarcity of young bulls. 



'■No further record is made in the Journal until May 15. 

 15184, PT 2 2 



