INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 505 



Mr. McGuire. Did you get as accurate a count in 1912 as you did 

 in 1913 — I mean the count of the pups ? 



Mr. Clark. Quite as accurate. 



Mr. McGuire. And the counting of the pups is the lest way to 

 determine the number of bearing females ? 



Mr. Clark. It is the only way to determine that accurately. 



Mr. McGuire. Of the females? 



Mr. Clark. Yes. In 1897 I counted for the commission of 1896-97 

 a mile of rookery ground during the season, from the arrival of the 

 first cow on the 12th day of June until the 31st day of July, and I 

 would like to call your attention to volume 1 of the proceedings, on 

 page 212, volume 1 of the Report of the Commission of 1896 and 1897. 

 The rookery was at Lakunen. It is not necessary to give the details, 

 but there was one cow on June 12, and the number gradually increases 

 to 1840 on July 15. It then showed diminution day by day. Up 

 to that time the arrivals had been in excess of the departures, but- 

 after that time the departures were in excess of the arrivals. When 

 we counted those pups, which we did later, there were approximately 

 3,600 of them, twice as many pups as cows at the time of maximum 

 number of cows as counted. 



The commission of 1896 accepted those figures as settling the fact 

 that at the time in the breeding season when the largest number of 

 cows were present, no more than half of them were present. 



Mr. McGuire. There is absolutely no doubt of your ability to 

 count accurately 3,000 pups on one rookery, and so you assume that 

 count was correct ? 



Mr. Clark. Yes, sir. 



Mr. McGuire. It showed that there were about twice as many 

 pups born that season as you had been able to observe there were 

 cows present on any one day of that season ? 



Mr. Clark. Yes, sir. 



Mr. McGuire. To what do you attribute the fact of the dearth of 

 cows on any one day ? Do you think they have gone to get feed or 

 anything like that ? 



Mr. Clark. Yes. The cow arrives shortly before the birth of her 

 pup, sometimes a few hours and sometimes a day or two. The pup 

 is born, and she rests, and after about a week she is re-served by the 

 bull, and then goes out to sea to feed. She goes out 100 to 200 miles 

 from shore. She remains anywhere from three days to a week, feeding 

 heavily and sleeping on the water. Then she returns to the island. 

 The pup goes without food in the meantime, and when she comes 

 home gorges itself for the three or four days she rests on shore. The 

 mother seal then goes off to feed again. As the pup grows older the 

 mother seal stays away longer, and toward the end of the season she 

 will be gone from ten days to two weeks at a time. 



Mr. McGuire. You sav it is due to that fact that vou can not get 

 an accurate count of the mothers of the pups ? 



Mr. Clark. That is why I say that when Mr. Elliott made his esti- 

 mate between the 10th and 15th of July, in 1913, he made it at a time 

 when not half the cows were present, and not half of the pups were 

 born, because the bulk of the pups are born after the 15th of 

 July. 



Mr. Elliott. I made it with a full knowledge of that fact. 



