THE KILLER. 93 



mentioning, even if they occur at all. The killer (PI. XXI) is charged with the 

 destruction of many seals, and, as intimated above, many undoubtedly are lost at sea, 

 but the killer is reticent on the subject, aud, in this instance at least, the sea does not 

 give up its dead. 



The killer, when in the same locality as the seals, may, undeniably, be a terrible 

 enemy, since it is not only extremely voracious but swift enough to catch a seal and 

 sufficiently powerful to attack and kill a sea lion. Fortunately killers are largely 

 absent from the vicinity of the islands during the breeding season, the majority of 

 them leaving in May and returning in September. It must, however, be said that 

 very little is known as to the destruction caused by the killer. Very few have actually 

 seen the killer capturing and eating seals, and still fewer have had the good fortune 

 to perform a post-mortem on one of these cetaceans, so that information on this point 

 is much to be desired.' 



Killers were seen on July 8, when about 40 miles south of St, George, and on 

 September 9, when between St. George and Unalaska, but the only one seen during 

 the interveniug time was on August 6, when on the Gorwin, about 10 miles to the east 

 of St. Paul. Of course this does not mean that there were no killers about the islands 

 during this time, but as a careful watch was kept for them it is safe to say that they 

 were not numerous. After this date they seem to have suddenly become abundant, 

 lor the presence of killers about St. Paul, in proximity to the seals, is frequently 

 mentioned in the journal kept by Mr. Clark, and although they were not actually seen 

 to attack and eat seals, yet it is hardly probable that these carnivorous cetaceans 

 were prowling about the island solely for amusement. 



A most extraordinary concourse of these animals was noted by Captain Garforth, 

 of H. B. M. S. Pheasant, who states that on September 13, 1896, killers were so 

 numerous to the northward of Unimak Pass, hundreds, if not thousands, being 

 gathered in that vicinity, that it was necessary to stop several times in order to avoid 

 running into them. As Captain Bryant says that he took, respectively, 18 and 24 

 seal pups from the stomachs of two killers, the possibilities of this animal as a 

 destroyer of seals would seem to be considerable, and while little is actually known 

 concerning losses from this source it seems not unfair to charge a certain proportion 

 of the unknown death rate to the killer. 



That this unknown death rate is normally high is certain, and it is equally certain 

 that it has never been duly considered, not even approximately, in estimating the 

 natural increase or decrease of the seals, although all such " estimates " are, at the 

 best, mere guesses. If the death rate among young pups is now something like 10 

 per cent it may have ranged as high as 20 per cent in former days of abundance. 

 Aud if to this we add a loss of half the pups which leave the islands in the fall we 

 are probably inside the mark, for, as Dr. White says, " Nature is extravagantly waste- 

 ful and terribly cruel." Although the death rate presses so heavily on the pups, it 

 must be equally, or even more, severe on the breeding females, which, heavy with 

 young, are less able than the others to procure food, escape from their enemies, and 

 withstand the buffetings of winds and waves. We get some idea of this from the 

 great proportion of female seals which are taken at sea — not alone by the pelagic 



' Personally I am inclined to hold the killer guiltless of very much slaughter of young seals, 

 believing that starvation, from inability to capture food when they are first turned off by their 

 mothers, and forced to shift for themselves, is the most important factor in the death rate among pups. 



