62 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PEIBILOF ISLANDS. 



grounds, and Captain Magneson of the schooner Walter Uarle reports that seals taken 

 on August 25, 1894 (latitude 56° 13' N., longitude 172° 44'), had been feeding on 

 salmon. 



The statements of sealers must, however, be taken with some allowance, as they 

 are apt to jump at conclusions instead of reaching them by careful observation; and 

 the mere fact that seals and salmon were found in the same locality would, to many, 

 be proof conclusive that the one fed on the other. Dr. Stejneger's observations, quoted 

 farther on, are to some extent opposed to those of Captain Todd, and show that in the 

 immediate vicinity of the Commander Islands the seals have no visible effect on the 

 flsheries. Mr. Barrett- Hamilton has very kindly allowed me to examine the specimens 

 of seal food obtained by him on the Asiatic side, and from these it would appear that 

 the seals feed on pretty much the same species there as they do in the eastern part of 

 Bering Sea. A specimen from Eobbeu Island contained bones of salmon [Oncorhynchus) 

 and beaks of the ever-present squid {Gonafus amoenus), one specimen from the 

 Commander Islands consisted solely of bones of the pollock {Theragra chalcogramma), 

 one solely of beaks of squid, and a third of squid and j)ollock. 



From data obtained by Dr. C. Hart Merriam it appears that a large portion of the 

 food of seals found in the North Pacific, from 60 to 80 miles from shore, between 

 latitude 56° 45' and latitude 58° 58', in April, consists of red rockflsh (Sebastodea), and 

 an almost equally large portion of squid {Gonatus amoenus), salmon and small fishes 

 being also eaten to some extent. 



Ho codfish (save in a single instance), halibut, or dogfish, is known to have been 

 found in the stomachs of seals, and these species probably swim at too great depths to 

 b^ taken, all facts in the way of stomach contents indicating that the seals invariably 

 feed near the surface. Cod, halibut, and sculpin are abundant about the Pribilofs, but 

 with the exceptions noted in the table of food, none of these have been found in the 

 stomachs of seals, or in the spewings on the rookeries. While bones of cod have been 

 in several instances recorded as part of the food of seals, reexamination has shown 

 that in every instance the bones were those of pollock. . Suijerficially the vertebrse of 

 a large pollock resemble those of a small cod, and this had led observers who had no 

 material at hand for comparison to set down cod as one of the fishes eaten by seals. 

 The sculpturing of the vertebrae is, however, unlike in the cod and pollock, while other 

 parts of the skeleton, the otoliths and portions of the gill covers, are so entirely different 

 in the two that no confusion is possible. There is no evidence to show that the seal 

 ever destroys more fishes than he eats, or eats one portion of a fish in preference to 

 another, reports of hundreds of fishes being seen with the nape or throat bitten out 

 requiring to be supported by proof to show that the seal was the guilty party. Nor 

 is there anything to show that one species of fish is preferred to another. All is fish 

 that comes to the fur seal's net, and the species which happens to be the most readily 

 taken is the one which is most abundantly eaten. 



Even dead fish may be eaten, for Mr. A. B. Alexander records having seen seals 

 eating salmon which had been dead for several days, and on one occasion the head of 

 a Macrurus, a deep-sea fish, dredged by the Albatross, was found later on in the 

 stomach of a fur seal. Concerning the dead salmon Mr. Alexander writes as follows : 



In June, 1894, the Albatross was lying in Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, and for several days I had been 

 collecting, obtaining among other things a large number of salmon. After the ship's company had 

 been supplied there was a considerable number left, which were placed in boxes, to be taken to 



