80 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
the carcasses, botli in the windrow and on the higher ground, the same state of affairs 
was apparent, viz, extreme leanness and emaciation. 
After the rookery had been comiiletely cleared I took my notebook and walking 
along the beach (starting at the south end, west side) began to count the number of 
dead paps, making a distinction between those in good condition and those in an 
advanced stage of decay. I had gone about half way round and counted about 200 of 
the former class ami 150 of the latter, when the starshena arrived and said he had 
orders from the kossak, Selivanof, to ask me to leave the rookery at once. 
It was evident later that Selivanof was uneasy because he thought that the number 
of dead pups might in some way become charged against the management, for he tried 
to make the whole thing a small affair and explained to me that the number of dead 
pups was due to their being trampled upon l)y the sikatchi. But for three very good 
reasons this theory does not hold: (1) There are now very few sikatchi on the rookery 
at all, entirely too few to be able by any x>ossibility to even kill a small fraction of 
the pups which have recently died; (2) if this trampling caused the death of so many 
pups, how many might we not expect in a drive like the one to-day, in which hundreds 
were trampled ni)ou, not once, but over and over again, yet not a single dead pup was 
found in the wake of the drive; (3) this explanation does not account for the emaciated 
condition of the bodies of the dead ones. 
Seeing the necessity of complying with the order to leave the rookery, I could not 
huish my count. I am pi’etty positive, however, that the following estimate is not 
much out of the way. I may preface it by saying that the number of dead bodies on 
the east side appeared to be about double that on the west side. 
Dead pups ou west side, counted, al>out 350 
Dead pu]>s on east side, estimated, about 700 
I )ead pups on bigb ground, estimated, .about 200 
'I'otal - 1, 250 
In leaving the rookery I took from the high ground two bodies, which seemed quite 
fresh and from which, therefore, it would seem possible to determine the cause of 
death. In lifting the second body up by the hind dippers I was somewhat startled 
to dud it still gasping, though it was much too weak to give any signs of life when 
lying on the ground. I carried it up to the killing-ground, where the rest of the 
company had congregated, but the pup had died before I reached them. The other 
pup had died apparently during the previous night. 
The doctor on board the Forpoise, Surgeon Lloyd Thomas, kindly consented to 
attend the ])ost-mortem. On viewing the opened bodies he agreed with me that death 
was due to inanition — lack of food. They were starved to death. There was not 
a trace of fat left in the tissues under the skin nor on the muscles. The ’extreme 
leanness of the carcasses was very noticeable. Both of ns afterwards commented 
u]ion the plumpness of the average pups as they ajipeared in the drive. 
I satisfied myself while on the rookery that the fresh bodies in the windrow were 
in the same condition, and the fact that they were thus thrown up on the beach by the 
sea signifies nothing, for we had liad no severe weather as yet, and it is therefore 
impossible that these pups could have been killed by any “surf nip.” 
It may be well to remark right here that the fact that these bodies were found in 
a windrow at high-w.ater mark does not imply that they died in the w.ater or were 
killed by the sea. I have explained above that at low water a long stretch of beach 
is bared, niion which the pups roam about and play. Naturally, a good many of the 
