STARVED PUPS ON ST. GEORGE ISLAND. 501 



The foxes on all the rookeries were right in among the seals eating carcasses theie 

 or preparing to haul them out. The greater part of the carcasses found were off the 

 present location of the rookeries, at places to which they had been dragged and eaten. 



On Zapadni 4 foxes were seen. There were 7 on Staraya Artel and 9 on ISTorth. 

 They were not counted on East and Little East, but reported as "very numerous and 

 bold." Three of the foxes seen were white. The foxes of St. George are much larger 

 and finer looking than those on St. Paul. They evidently feed better. 



THE COUNT OF STARVED PUPS.^ 



On Zapadni the remains of 527 pups were counted. The former count for this 

 rookery numbered 199. Three natives assisted in the count, pointing out scattered 

 pups. As close watch as possible was kept for starving paps, but only 4 were seen. 

 The difference in time is probably sufficient to account for the small percentage of 

 starving pups. The rookeries of St. Paul would to-day show as dead nearly, if not 

 quite, all those counted as starving. 



Zapadni rookery has a fine lot of pups. The number of gray pups is, however, 

 very small. Most of the pups seem to have turned the color of the little brown 

 yearlings without passing through the gray state. In fact, the gray pups are 

 beginning to look so much like the little silvery yearlings that it seems probable the 

 gray pups are the silvery yearlings and the others are the brown yearlings. 



The rookery, as a result of the rain, is as filthy as a hogpen. The seals are 

 drawn back on the clayey hillside away from the rocks. They seemed loath to go 

 into the water, though a bath would have been good for them. A few went in and 

 the water became colored like the hillside. But it took so long to put them in, that 

 we went about them and drove them back up the hill. They immediately resumed 

 their places in the dirt of the hillside. It would have been impossible to stampede 

 them. For some reason the seals at this time are adverse to going into the water. 



The seals now spread over the entire hill slope. They extend back in a long, 

 narrow strip, following the ridge of rocks in the hollow at the foot of the hill. Kone 

 are now to be found on the shingle of the beach. A tongue-like mass of breeding 

 seals runs out along the ridge in a depression at the foot of the hill and is joined by 

 a crowd of bachelors which extend out into the high grass. At two other points in 

 the rear of the rookery the bachelors are hauled far out. In some cases they are out 

 to the limit ^ of the seal grass supposed to mark the original extent of the rookeries. 

 Their track is narrow, but well defined by the beating down of the grass. A larger 

 number of seals would soon denude the whole space. 



From a consideration of the conditions here and at Staraya Artel, and the similar 

 conditions on St. Paul, I am inclined to believe the grass area can be trusted only to 

 show the former extent of the ground traveled over by the seals. This area bears no 

 direct ratio to the size of the herd. Doubling the present size of the bachelor herd 

 would cause greater proportionate diminution of the grass-grown area. Where 

 bachelors are now to be found they are at the extreme limit, in the edge of the grass. 

 AS the grass becomes beaten down they move on. Each move extends the area 

 occupied this year, while the ground behind is unoccupied. 



1 For a summary of the counts of starved and starving pups on both islands see Volume I, pp. 213 

 and 214. 



