IV.-THE FOOD OF THE NORTHERN FUR SEALS. 



By Frederic A. Lucas. 



Our knowledge of the foo(^ of the fur seal is based almost entirely upon data 

 and material collected by Mr. 0. H. Townsend, although Mr. A. B. Alexander and 

 Dr. C. Hart Merriam have made contributions to the subject, and while there have 

 been some statements as to what the seals ate, and some theorizing as to the amount 

 of fish destroyed by the seal herd and its effect on the Alaskan fisheries, these 

 statements and theories have rested on no basis of observed facts. As Mr. Martin N. 

 Johnson remarked at a hearing before the Committee on Ways and Means, " You can 

 only determine what they (the seals) eat by an examination of their stomachs," and 

 with the exceptions noted above, comparatively little of this work has been done. 

 The material collected by Messrs. Townsend and Alexander has been reexamined in 

 order to ascertain not only the species, but, in the majority of cases, the number of 

 individuals of each species eaten. One result of this examination has been to show 

 that the fishes recorded as cod were invariably pollock, the exact determination being 

 previously impossible owing to the lack of material. In this connection I would like 

 to express my obligations to Mr. Barton A. Bean for assistance in identifying the 

 fishes, and to Prof. A. E. Verrill for identifying the cephalopods. 



Up to the time that the pups leave the islands they subsist entirely on milk, and 

 while small quantities of other things are found in their stomachs, these are swallowed 

 for the same reason which causes the older seals to swallow similar objects, and there 

 is not the least iota of evidence to indicate that before November pups derive the 

 slightest sustenance from anything save their mother's milk. 



In view of the size of the pups at this time this may seem surprising, but the 

 largest gray pups were found starved to death, while the examination of a number 

 killed for the express purpose of determining whether or not they fed on anything 

 save milk showed conclusively that they did not. Seaweed, small crustaceans and 

 tunicates are found in infinitesimal quantities, but these are not taken for food any 

 more than are the fragments of shells and the pebbles which are so often present, 

 and no one has ever claimed that bits of succulent lava were eaten for the nourishment 

 they contained. 



During the fall of 1896 a number of pups were killed in order to determine if 

 possible the time of weaning and to ascertain whether or not the pups fed on anything 

 save milk. While a few of the stomachs contained crustaceans, in only one case were 



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