THE COUNTING OF THE STARVED PUPS. 493 



THE EFFECT OP DISTURBANCE. 



We had an excellent opportunity on Zapadni to see tbe effect of a clean sweep of 

 the rookeries. Colonel Murray and Mr. Hamilton went along in advance and drove 

 everything off for 200 feet or more into the water. Many of the animals were back 

 out of the water and hustling across the upper and undisturbed heights' before those 

 making the count came along. In returning for the second swath all the seals were 

 driven off in advance, and before we got to them the wet seals were back and had 

 again to be driven off. Looking back along the rookery we could see pups and 

 cows and bulls hastening back to their places, and it is safe to say they are all back 

 within an hour's time. The unusually rough sea of the past few days has probably 

 given the seals out at sea but little chance to rest, and they want to sleep on land. 



An interesting feature of the present state of the rookeries is the attitude of the 

 bulls. Very many, one could almost say as many as originally had harems, are back 

 in or near their old places. Some of them are still thin, but many of them are full 

 and plump; some very fat, scarcely able to walk. They have evidently been feeding. 

 They have recovered their tempers and are to-dayquite as difQcult to manage as were 

 the bulls at the time of the first count. While all of them will not fight, many will, 

 and these you can not budge. Colonel Murray and Mr. Barrett-Hamilton found it 

 impossible to move many of them, and they were left for us, and we had to get around 

 them as best we could. Many of them were quite as bold and dangerous as in the 

 height of the season. It is probable that none of them would give ground any more 

 readily to-day than in the breeding season if the cows and pups did not move away 

 so readily. The bulls go with them because the crowd goes. 



ZAPADNI BEEP. 



On Zapadni Eeef there were found a large number of pups on that portion of the 

 reef which was not occupied by harems. They seem to have been washed up by the 

 surf and may have come over from the big rookery. They were in some cases 

 embedded in the seaweed and an overhauling of the seaweed would probably have 

 disclosed more of them. A number of these pups were only skeletons washed up 

 after the amphipods had cleaned them off. These have undoubtedly been floated m 

 from elsewhere. 



The number of dead pups counted here was 327. Eighteen starving pups were 

 found. The number of dead is small in comparison with Little Zapadni, but this 

 rookery has undoubtedly lost more than any other rookery by the washing of the 

 surf. It is narrow, and the high surf breaks almost to the top of the space occupied 

 by the seals. One hundred and four dead pups were counted here at the time of the 

 previous count. 



There was an unusual number of bachelors out on Middle Hill and the sands of 

 English Bay. The usual number of old bulls were along the water front the entire 

 distance across the foot of English Bay. 



^ An unusually large number of seals seemed to be on land to-day, and as they were 

 all turned into the water they literally made the waters of English Bay black. In 

 coming down with the boats along the shore it was a most interesting sight to see the 

 scampering of the seals in getting out of the way. They seemed hot to be frightened 

 over it, but they would leap out of the water in every direction, only to close in 



