422 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



TOLSTOI. 



In the afternoon Tolstoi rookery was visited with a view to counting the live 

 pups under the cliffs. Passing by the sandy tract, a bull and two cows were the 

 only adult animals on the sand which would not give way. One of the cows was 

 found to have a newly born pup still wet and unable to walk. The mother fondled 

 over it and snapped viciously at two starved pups which were trying to nurse her. 

 The bull seemed quite as fierce and dangerous as at the height of the season. They 

 were not disturbed further. 



Under Tolstoi cliffs 2,lff4 pups were counted. The water for a distance out was 

 lined with pups swimming, mingled with holostiaki. 'So attempt was made to count 

 them or any of the pups that took to the water during the count. There were prob- 

 ably 500 of them in the water. Another difficulty arose from the hiding of the pups 

 in the caves and holes among the rocks. As many of these were counted as possible, 

 but two hundred pups might easily have been overlooked in out of the way places. 

 This is especially true of the part next the head, which is made up of great bowlders 

 piled in confused heaps, in the angles and crevices of which the pups were thickly 

 packed. 



A large cream-colored albino cow with pink flippers and eyes was seen at Tolstoi 

 Head. fShe was a fine-looking animal. Her presence was noted at the time of the 

 count of the cows early in the season. 



AKDIGUEN. 



In the course of the afternoon Mr. Crowley and Mr. Townsend counted pups 

 on Ardiguen. Cows were counted here on July 13 by Mr. Townsend and found to 

 number 550. The number of live pups counted was 650. The pups were counted 

 twice in an hour and a half, the second count tallying closely with the first. The 

 first count was made from the overhanging bluffs; the second by passing through 

 the rookery. Not more than 30 pups were in the heavy breakers along the shore.' 



AUGUST 19. 

 THE COUNTING OF LIVE PUPS. 



An attempt was made by Mr. Clark and Mr. Townsend, assisted by Judge Crowley 

 and natives, to count the live pups on Go rbatch rookery, beginning at the north end. 

 After counting for some distance it was found utterly impossible to manage the seals. 

 In the first place the pups could not be kept from taking to the water, and once in it 

 they either remained there or swam ahead if counted, and back if not counted. Then 

 in every crevice in the rocks the little fellows would pile up on one another so that 

 they could neither be got out nor counted. It even seemed that some of them would 

 be smothered, so thickly were they packed in. The seals could not be worked off 

 gradually, and either went in large bodies, trampling the pups, or else the pups 

 accompanied them into the water. 



1 We can not help feeling that this count failed to get all the pups among the rocks. They 

 certainly could not have been seen from the bank, and as the count on the rookery merely corroborated 

 the one from above, it does not add strength to it. In 1897 this little rookery showed most decided 

 shrinkage. Three harems, aggregating 78 cows, were wholly wanting, and yet a careful count of 

 the live pups iu August gave 736. We are therefore inclined to believe that Ardiguen was under- 

 estimated in 1896. 



