46 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



In 1874 Henry W. Elliott made the following analysis of a detailed 

 description of the natural habit of fur seals on the breeding grounds 

 in which he, after three successive summers spent in the study of 

 this life, recognized the wonderful system and regular order of the 

 wild life which these seals follow. It is found on page 67 of House 

 Document No. 175, Fifty-fourth Congress, first session, to wit: 



REVIEW OP STATEMENTS CONCERNING LIFE IN ROOKERIES. 



To recapitulate and sum up the system and regular method of life and reproduc- 

 tion on these rookeries of St. Paul and St. George, as the seals seem to have arranged 

 it, I shall say that — ■ 



First. The earliest bulls land in a negligent, indolent way, at the opening of the 

 season, soon after the rocks at the water's edge are free from ice, frozen snow, etc. 

 This is, as a rule, about the 1st to the 5th of every May. They land from the begin- 

 ning to the end of the season in perfect confidence and without fear; they are very 

 fat, and will weigh on an average 500 pounds each. Some stay at the water's edge, 

 some go to the tier back of them again, and so on until the whole rookery is mapped 

 out by them weeks in advance of the arrival of the first female. 



Second. That by the 10th or 12th of June all the male stations on the rookeries have 

 been mapped out and fought for, and held in waiting by the "seecatchie." These 

 males are, as a rule, bulls rarely ever under 6 years of age; most of them over that age, 

 being sometimes three and occasionally doubtless four times as old. 



Third. That the cows make their first appearance as a class on or after the 12th or 

 15th of June, in very small numbers, but rapidly after the 23d and 25th of this month 

 every year they begin to flock up in such numbers as to fill the harems very per- 

 ceptably, and by the 8th or 10th of July they have all come, as a rule — a few stragglers 

 excepted. The average weight of the female now will not be much more than 80 to 90 

 pounds each. 



Fourth. That the breeding season is at its height from the 10th to the 15th of July 

 every year, and that it subsides entirely at the end of this month and early in August; 

 also, that its method and system are confined entirely to the land — never effected in 

 the sea. 



Fifth. That the females bear their first young when they are 3 years old, and that 

 the period of gestation is nearly 12 months, lacking a few days only of that lapse of 

 time. 



Sixth. That the females bear a single pup each, and that this is born soon after 

 landing. No exception to this rule lias ever been witnessed or recorded. x 



Seventh. That the •"seecatchie," which have held. the harems from the beginning 

 to the end of the season, leave for the water in a desultory and straggling manner at 

 its close, greatly emaciated, and do not return, if they do at all. until 6 or 7 weeks have 

 elapsed, when the regular systematic distribution of the families over the rookeries 

 is at an end for this season. A general medley of young males are now free, which 

 come out of the water and wand er all over these r< iokeri.es, together with many old males 

 which have not been on seraglio duty, and great numbers of females. An immense 

 majority over all others present are pups, since only about 25 percent of the mother 

 seals are out of the water now at any one time. 



Eighth. That the rookeries lose their compactness and definite boundaries of true 

 breeding limit and expansion by the 25th to the 28th of July every year. Then, 

 after this date, the pups begin to haul bark to the right and left in small squads at 

 first, but as the season goes on, by the 18th of August, they depart without reference 

 to their mothers, and when thus scattered the males, females, and young swarm over 

 more than three and four times the area occupied by them when breeding and born on 

 the rookeries. The system of family arrangement and uniform compactness of the 

 breeding classes breaks up at this date. 



Xinth. That by the 8th or 10th of August the pups born nearest the water first begin 

 to learn to swim, and that by the 15th or 20th of September they are all familiar, more 

 or less, with the exercis 



i This question of whether or no the sex rate of pups born on the rookeries is equal was settled by Elliott 

 in 1S72, who personally handled 1.670 pups just as they were driven up in November from the St. Paul 

 rookeries, and saw the tally of the 7.333 others summed up in the total drive of 9,002 pups made during 

 that month for natives' food. 



Each pup was examined before il ing. The males were taken and the females released. Out of this 

 total of 9,002 pups thus driven 4,825 were males. 



This experiment clearly declares the equality in sex as to numbers at birth. on the rookeries. 



The average weight of those 4.S25 pups was 39 pounds 8 ounces, and their average age when killed (Nov. 

 10-21, VSI2) was 4 "months. Some of these pups were born early in July or late in June, but nine-tenths 

 Of them between July 10 and 20; average length from tip of nose to root of tail was 23 inches. 



