MORTALITY AMONG PUPS. 169 



Zapadni, south end of rookery (pi. 73); at Palata, where I found that the seals had 

 almost abandoned the brow of the clayey bank to the north of the gully and the 

 elevated flat ground between the latter and that bank (pi. 72) ; also at Zapalata 1 noted 

 conditions indicating a falling off both at the western end and at the middle portion 

 of the eastern end; at the rookery of Urili Kamen the middle portion seems to have 

 disappeared. 



My observations relative to the falling off of the Palata breeding grounds are 

 verified by a photograph by Mr. N. N. Lukin-Feodotitch, the Grovernment overseer at 

 Glinka, taken on July 28 (new style). 



The overstocking of these rookeries with bulls and half bulls was startlingly 

 evident, in spite of the lateness of the season. On all the abandoned breeding grounds 

 there were groups of solitary bulls to be seen, while among the female seals, old and 

 young, there was a large quantity of young bulls imitating the performance of the 

 older sikatchi during the early part of the season. The killing of 172 superfluous 

 bulls during 1896 does not seem to have had much effect; the number was too 

 insignificant in proportion to those that were left, and during 1897 no bulls at all were 

 killed off. This is greatly to be regretted, for while it is quite true that there is not 

 the same chance of trampling to death of the newborn pups as in certain other 

 rookeries, there are, nevertheless, a number of pups killed in this way, and the presence 

 of this superfluity of males on the breeding ground is certainly not promoting the 

 best interest of the rookeries. 



MORTALITY OF PUPS. 



Up to the end of our stay at South Eookery (July 30) no startling mortality was 

 visible there. Early trampling to death was almost out of the question, and if any 

 newborn pups died in this or any other way the bodies had been eaten or carried away 

 by the blue foxes. During our stay we observed only three or four dead pups. Mr. 

 Barrett Hamilton on the last day secured three of these, but on account of our sudden 

 departure no autopsy was made. This was hardly necessary, for the bodies were 

 exceedingly emaciated and the rectum contained the tarry feces so characteristic of 

 starvation. Besides these we noticed a few pups which appeared weak, as if starving. 



At Glinka, on August 20, I saw a great number of decayed carcasses of young 

 pups, probably a hundred or more, between Zapadni and Sabatcha Dira. These had 

 apparently been dead a long time. There were no dead bodies of pups which had 

 died within a few days, though I found a couple of comparatively recent date, which 

 from their extreme leanness appeared to have starved to death. A few, but only a 

 fiew, of the pups which we saw on shore appeared weak and thin, and only one was 

 in a so far advanced state of starvation as to make its death within a few days a 

 matter of certainty. 



Hoping to have a chance to investigate the question of the mortality of the pups 

 on North Rookery, Bering Island, during the time while the steamer was taking on 

 board the skins, I returned to the islands during the latter part of September. 



On September 27 I went ashore at that rookery in the first boat and at once 

 proceeded to the rookery ground in order to lose no time, as the vessel was only going 

 to stay a few hours. There were only a few hundred female seals ashore, and as it 

 was low water these were chiefly located on the outer rocks and mostly on the eastern 

 side of the reef. The weather was cloudy, with heavy squalls of a fresh southeaster, 



