110 ALASKA. 



of their lives bas passed, it goes also to prove that the female 

 seal cannot bear young before her fourth yeax. 



It is without doubt a fact that female seals do not begin to 

 bear young before their fifth year, i. e., the next four years after 

 the one of their birth, and not in the third or fourth. Certainly 

 we can allow that some females bear in their fourth year; that, 

 however, is not the rule, but the exception. To make it more 

 apparent that females cannot bear young in their third year, 

 consider the two-year-old females, and compare them with "see- 

 catchie" (adult bulls) and cows, (adult females,) and it will be 

 evident to all that this is impossible. 



Do the females bear young every year; and how often in 

 their lives do they bring forth ? 



To settle this question is very difficult, for it is impossible to 

 make any observations upon their movements ; but I think that 

 the females in their younger years (or prime) bring forth every 

 year, and as they get older, every other year ; thus (according 

 to people accustomed to them) they may each bring forth in 

 their whole lives from ten to fifteen young, and even more. 

 This opinion is founded on the fact that never (except in one 

 year, 1832) have an excessive number of females been seen 

 without young ; that cows not pregnant hardly ever come to the 

 Prybilov Islands ; that such females cannot be seen every year. 

 As to how large a number of females do not bear, according to 

 the opinions and personal observations of the old people, the 

 following may be depended upon with confidence: not more 

 than one-fifth of the mature or " effective" females are without 

 young ; but to avoid erroneous impressions or conflicting state- 

 ments between others and myself, I have had but one season, 

 (" trayt") in which to personally observe and consider the multi- 

 plication of seals. 



There is one more very important question in the considera- 

 tion of the breeding or the increase of seals, and that is, of the 

 number of young seals born in one near, lioio many are males; and 

 ■is the number of males always the same in proportion to the 

 females ? 



Judging from the holluschickie accumulated from the "za- 

 pooska" in 1822-24 on the island of Saint Paul, and in 1826-'27 

 on the island of Saint Creorge, the number of young males was 

 very variable; for example, on the island of Saint Paul, in three 

 years 11,000 seals were spared, and in the following three years 

 there were killed 7,000, i. e., about two-thirds of the number 



