INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 511 



Mr. McGuire. Are you willing to stand on your statement that the 

 yearlings do not return in any great numbers as being a definite 

 truth discovered with respect to the yearlings ? 



Mr. Clark. I do. 



Mr. McGuire. Then what would you say as to the branding in the 

 future with a hot iron ? 



Mr. Clark. The real purpose of this test was not to determine the 

 presence or absence of the yearling on the hauling grounds. That 

 was one thing learned by the branding not expected. The test was 

 to determine the standard size of the different animals. 



I wanted to kill one or two dozen of the yearlings, and I had 

 instructions which would have enabled me to kill the animals had 

 I been able to find them. I wanted to measure the length of the 

 animals, their girth — to take all the measurements that would go to 

 a scientific determination of the animal. I would then take the 

 length and width of the skin green and then in salt, and with the 

 corresponding weights this would have settled the standard size of 

 yearling; but I was disappointed in not finding the animals to kill 

 and to use as a determining factor. 



Mr. McGuire. Then you came away? 



Mr. Clark. Yes. 



Mr. McGuire. What time did you come away, what date? 



Mr. Clark. I had to leave on the 8th of August. 



Mr. McGuire. What time do the seals leave the islands ? 



Mr. Clark. They leave in November. 



Mr. McGuire. Then in your judgment, the pups of one year — that 

 is, the pup born one year does not appear on the islands, at least in 

 anv considerable number until after the killing season of next year? 



Mr. Clark. That is right. 



Mr. McGuire. Where are they, in your judgment? 



Mr. Clark. They are at sea. The mother separates from the pup 

 on leaving the islands and the pup is weaned. The pups spend the 

 winter in Bering Sea in efforts to learn to feed. They have to make 

 the shift from a milk diet to a fish diet. They probably go away 

 with the yearling bachelors and females, and learn to fish associating 

 with them. They hang around in the vicinity of the Aleutian 

 Islands in the latter part of the fall. The mother seals go down as 

 far as Santa Barbara and return slowly. It is supposed that the 

 yearling seals go no lower down that Cape Flattery, that they meet 

 the returning herd there, and return part way with the older seals, 

 but reach the islands later, about a month or two months behind the 

 other seals. They reach the islands late and get to the rookeries 

 only when the pups have begun to swim. That is in the months of 

 August and September. 



Mr. McGuire. The pups of that year? 



Mr. Clark. Yes. By the time of this return the pup is now a 

 yearling, and the little animals with which he has been associating, 

 the 2-year-olds, come to the hauling grounds, or breeding grounds. 

 The yearlings themselves do not come there because they are timid 

 and not anxious to get in among the older bachelors, which are 

 rougher in their play. They hover around the edge of the rookeries, 

 waiting until the pups have attained sufficient skill in swimming to be 

 companionable. 



