50 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 
THE BACHELORS. 
The bachelor seals begin to arrive at about the same time as the bulls. Their 
first appearance about St. Paul is usually on Sivutch Rock. The average date of the 
first recorded food drives is about the 20th of May.* This, however, is not the date 
of their first arrival, but the one at which the animals are out in sufficient numbers to 
make a drive worth while. 
The older bachelors come first. This is shown by the excess of older seals that 
are turned back in the earlier drives, and the larger percentage of killed in the 
number driven. This can best be made clear by citing the statistics showing the 
animals rejected, large and small, and the average per cent of animals killed, for the 
different dates during the season of 1897, on St. Paul Island: 
Statistics of killings, St. Paul, 1897.! 
Rejected. Percent- 
Date. ———— age 
Large. Small. killed. 
| 
June 15.... 44 | 119 0. 65 
18. 13u | 26 .67 
556 | 184 48 
402 214 64 
376 | 214 57 
288 224 58 
107 '‘| 90 53 
229 | 175 63 
301 | 306 67 
355 | 551 65 
97 | 115 68 
140 638 50 
216 661 58 
391 586 | 53 
120 412 66 
377 | 1,174 39 
500 2, 047 34 
161 698 24 
352 1, 380 23 
491 890 27 
221 545 20 
298 1,114 16 
383 708 20 
118 456 16 
350 1, 440 19 
159 | 376 15 
| 
' This record of rejected animals was, for the most part, kept by Mr. John M. Morton, whose duty as Treasury agent 
required his presence constantly on the killing field. 
From this table it is apparent that among the rejected animals prior to J uly 9, 
those too large for killing predominated. The large percentage of animals killed for 
the total number driven shows that the greater proportion of the seals on the hauling 
grounds at this time were of killable age. After July 9 the smaller seals began to 
predominate, showing the advent of the 2-year olds and yearlings. About the same 
relative number of animals were killed in the later drives, but owing to the increase 
of little seals, the percentage steadily diminished from a maximum of 68 per cent to a 
minimum of 15 per cent. 
THE BEGINNING OF THE SEALING SEASON. 
It is not until the 1st of June that the regular driving for the quota begins. At 
this time the 3-year-old seals, from which the skins for the quota as a rule are taken, 
"Log of St. Paul, Pt. II, May of any season. 
