106 THE ASIATIC FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 



attempt to keep as close as possible to the water's edge, to beg nourishment of the 

 females landing. 



On the 16th of September I had another chance to inspect the north rookery. 

 My experience was as follows: 



Very few seals were seen on the rookery, only a few thousands all told; the "sands" were 

 almost eutirely deserted, nor were any seals to be oljserved in the sea. Those on the reef were cows 

 and pups, the majority of the latter now gray. One or two old bulls were seen and half a dozen 

 large four or five year olds mingling among the females, apparently playing sikatchi. I found a great 

 numher of dead pu[)s; there were at least twice as many as on August 22. All, or nearly all, were 

 lying in windrows. Curiously euounh, there were no very fresh bodies which might have been killed 

 by the recent northerly swell; all I saw were dead at least one week. It was also notable that nearly 

 all were black, only here and there a gray one. 



After all, the absence of fresh bodies does not signify much. I have no doubt 

 that most of them were eaten or carried oii' by the blue foxes. Since the decrease in 

 the number of seals killed the natives on Bering Island have utilized every seal 

 carcass, salting the best parts for their own use and putting the rest, including the 

 entrails, into holes in the ground for winter food for the sledge dogs. The foxes in 

 the neighborhood of the rookery, instead of feasting on the carcasses on the killing 

 grounds and elsewhere, are therefore reduced to making a precarious living out ot 

 what they can snatch from the rookery. There being now only a few old seals on land, 

 the foxes and their young, at this time nearly full grown, naturally clean the ground 

 very early every morning of every pup dead during the night. The flock of large sea 

 gulls (Larus glaueescens), always present on the rookery, also dispose of many bodies. 

 It is therefore perfectly safe to assert that a great many more seal pups have died 

 than any census based on the dead bodies present on the rookeries will account for. 



It may be observed in the present connection that the bodies of even grown seals 

 disintegrate and disappear with amazing rapidity. The combined efforts of the foxes, 

 the birds, the staphyliuid insects, and the fly larvte reduce a carcass in very short 

 order to a skeleton. During the winter the bones become scattered. If they are 

 lying on or near the bench the furious winter surf sweeps them away; if they are 

 farther away the decaying rank vegetation covers them up. During the winter the 

 waves wash over the entire "reef" and the "sands" as well, and not a trace of the 

 starved-pup carcasses will be found on the beaches the next season. 



It is a curious fact that the natives and the kossak in charge of the rookery were 

 trying to make light of this state of affairs, although the very fact that the latter 

 prevented ine from finishing the count is evidence enough that he was aware of it. 

 As mentioned in the abstract from my diary, he suspected that the great mortality 

 might be charged against management. I have shown that his argument that the 

 pups were being trampled to death on the rookery has no foundation in fact, but I 

 did not mention, however, his answer to my question why he thought so. It was to 

 the effect that the flattened condition of the dead pups showed that they had been 

 trampled upon. Now, it is quite true that these half decomposed bodies present a 

 very much flattened appearance, but that is not surprising when we consider the 

 amount of cartilage in their skeleton. Moreover, there is no doubt that they have 

 been trampled upon, but that took place after they were dead. After I had demon- 

 strated to Selivanof and some of tlie natives that tlie pups had died from starvation and 

 not from any injuries received, there was evidently a load taken off their hearts, and 

 lamentations over the great number of dead pups were heard all around. I mention 



