86 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



head, that the skull was literally split, the frontal and parietal bones being driven 

 apart along the line of suture. Another pup whose skull was fractured may have 

 been struck by a flipper, but, as it was also bitten, was more probably dashed against 

 a rock. 



To one who has watched the rookeries and seen an excited bull rushing about in 

 a crowd of females and pups the surprising thing is that deaths from bruises are not 

 more frequent. During the height of the season the bulls are ever on the alert, keep- 

 ing a sharp lookout, not only on the idle bulls which lie about the rookeries, but on 

 tbeir neighbors as well, ^ho, when their harems are small, are quite ready to borrow 

 a cow or two from a more fortunate companion. Considerable commotion, too, may be 

 caused by a bull heading off some cow which may evince a desire to go to thp water 

 before the bull thinks she should. The worst disturbance, however; is created and 

 most damage done when the proprietor of a harem is driven off by some aggressive 

 rival, for the defeated bull makes for the sea, overturning cows and dashing the pups 

 right and left in his mad rush for safety. Other cows, taking the alarm, also scurry 

 for the water in spite of the efforts of their bulls to round them up, and a hundred or 

 more, leaving their pups behind, will plunge headlong into the sea. On July 16, 1896, 

 such an incident was twice witnessed at Northeast Point in a comparatively short 

 space of time, and while the desertion is only temporary, the cows returning to their 

 respective harems as soon as quiet is restored, yet much damage may be thus caused. 



While deaths from specific diseases are probably comparatively few, yet undoubt- 

 edly more exist than are herein noted, while more careful work might have transferred 

 some of the unknown list to other categories. Still it is often difficult, frequently 

 impossible, to ascertain the cause of an animal's death even where the preliminary 

 symptoms are known and the autopsy made under the inost favorable circumstances. 

 In the present instances the specimens were gathered as best they mi'ght from half an 

 hour to two weeks after death had occurred, and the work of dissection was per- 

 formed in the field, sometimes with a block of lava for a dissecting table, sometimes 

 on the sand, often with an "audience of interested bulls who evinced a strong desire to 

 take part in the proceedings. 



Still, in making the autopsies nothing was taken for granted, not even in cases ot 

 evidently starved pups, while all bodies found in situations where they might have 

 been drowned were carefully examined to ascertain whether or not this were 

 really the case. Care was also taken not to confuse marks made by the pecking of 

 gulls with contusions, for such injuries about the eyes and frontal region, when 

 inflicted shortly before or after death, may readily be mistaken for the actual cause of 

 death. In two instances, where the cause of death was not obvious and time per- 

 mitted, the brain was examined, but in neither case did it exhibit any congestion or 

 other lesion to account for death. 



Absence of fat, or of subcutaneous fat, may not mean as much as it should to 

 those unacquainted with seals ; in reality, it is practically synonymous with starva- 

 tion, and if a seal lacks fat beneath the skin it is useless to look for it elsewhere. Fat 

 is the seal's heavy undershirt, by which he is protected from cold, and when this is 

 gone the seal is gone, too. 



In order, too, that there might be no question as to the evidences of starvation, 

 an active, healthy female pup found among the bachelors was placed by itself, its 

 condition at various times noted, and an autopsy made after death. In order to have 



