320 THE FUR SEALS OP THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



JULY 17. 



Dr. Stejneger and Mr. Lucas returned from Northeast Point. The forenoon was 

 spent in the dissection of the cow from Zoltoi and in office work. In the afternoon 

 Dr. Jordan and Mr. Macoun visited the Eeef, and with a glass counted harems on 

 Sivutch Eock. 



DISSECTION OF A THREE-YEAR-OLD COW. 



In the rear of the rookeries have been seen of late a number of small harems, 

 containing each a single small cow. This morning two similar harems are located at 

 the angle of Zoltoi Sands. As a step toward determining the question whether these 

 are virgin females, one of the cows on Zoltoi was this morning shot by Mr. Chichester 

 for dissection. 



The specimen was chosen as being apparently less than average size, light in 

 color, and consorting alone with one of the smaller bulls away from the regular 

 breeding grounds. She had no pup. 



The following measurements were taken: Neck, 1 foot 6 inches; length to root of 

 tail, 4 feet 3 inches; girth around posterior nipples, 1 foot 9 inches; girth around 

 anterior nipples, 2 feet 2^ inches; girth of shoulders, 2 feet 9 inches. Weight, 73 

 pounds. 



In examining external characters the vagina was seen to be distended, its lining 

 walls thickened, fleshy, and wrinkled. The nipples were dark in color, and moderately 

 protuberant; the subcutaneous layer of fat abundant. 



The mammary glands contained a very little milk; were functionally well 

 developed; their tissue, nearly an inch thick in the region between the posterior 

 nipples, was found to thin out gradually anteriorly, the tissue extending from the 

 pubic symphysis to within about 8 inches beyond the front of the anterior nipples, and 

 the posterior glands on both sides merging together in one continuous sheet. The 

 upper edge of the gland was in line of the upper axil, and along the median side of 

 the body. 



In the bicornuate uterus the right horn was thickened and dilated to about half 

 the size of one's list. The ovaries were smooth, about the size of a walnut, the right 

 exhibiting a single scar. The left showed one large and several small graafian 

 follicles. The scar showed that the animal had bred once. No rupture was evident 

 on the left side, but the follicle was ready for rupture. 



The animal was therefore not a virgin, but apparently a young cow which had 

 , lost her pup, and, having no further interest on the rookery, had gone to sea, and in 

 landing had taken up with the young bull on Zoltoi. 



ZOLTOI SANDS. 



In some conditions of weather the bachelors lie on the flat sand at Zoltoi, but not 

 often. There are, however, always hundreds of them hauled up on the stony southeast 

 edge of the sands. They haul out at the angle of the bluff and then go straight up to 

 the bowlder-strewn slope where the sand is firm over the underlying blocks of lava. 

 The seals find it very hard to walk on sand at all, or to creep up from the sea directly 

 on the sand beaches. They slip back at every step. It is not easy for a man to walk 

 over these sands. But at the angle of Zoltoi Bluff', where the sands are beaten hard 



