THE RUSSIAN FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 
81 
starving pups died there at ebb tide and their emaciated bodies were tlirown up by 
the rising tide. It may even be reasonably supposed that these hungry pups would 
attempt to keep as close as possible to the water’s edge, to beg nourishment of the 
females landing. 
On the IGth of Sei>tember 1 had another chance to inspect the North Rookery, 
My experience was as follows: 
Very few seals were seen on the rookery, only a few thousands all told; the “sands” were 
almost entirely deserted, nor were any seals to he observed in the sea. Those on the reef were cows 
and pups, the majority of the latter now gray. One or two old bulls were seen and half a dozen 
large four or five year olds mingling among the females, apparently playing sikatchi. I found a great 
number of dead pups; there were at least twice as many as on August 22. All, or nearly all, were 
lying in windrows. Curiously enough, there were no very fresh bodies which might have been killed 
by the recent northerly swell ; all I saw were dead at least one week. It was also notable that nearly 
all were black, only here and there a gray one. 
After all, the absence of fresh bodies does not signify much. I have no doubt 
that most of them were eaten or carried off by the blue foxes. Since the decrease in 
the number of seals killed the natives on Bering Island have utilized every seal 
carcass, salting the best parts for their own use and putting the rest, including the 
entrails, into holes in the ground for winter food for the sledge-dogs. The foxes in 
the neighborhood of the rookery, instead of feasting on the carcasses on the killing- 
grounds and elsewhere, are therefore reduced to making a precarious living out of 
wbat they can snatch from the rookery. Tliere being now only a few old seals on land, 
the foxes and their young, at this time nearly full grown, naturally clean the ground 
very early every morning of every pup dead during the night. The flock of large sea 
gulls [Lnrns glancescens), always present on the rookery, also dispose of many bodies. 
It is therefore perfectly safe to assert that a great many more seal pups have died 
than any census based on the dead bodies present on the rookeries will account for. 
It may be observed in the imesent connection that the bodies of even grown seals 
disintegrate and disappear with amazing rapidity. The combined efforts of the foxes, 
the birds, the staphylinid insects, and the fly larvm reduce a carcass in very short 
order to a skeleton. During the winter the bones become scattered. If they are 
lying on or near the beach the furious winter surf sweeps them away; if they are 
farther away the decaying rank vegetation covers them up. During the winter the 
waves wash over the entire ‘^reef” and the ‘‘sands” as well, and not a trace of the 
starved pup carcasses will be found on the beaches the next season. 
It is a curious fact that the natives and the kossak in charge of the rookery were 
trying to make light of this state of affairs, although the very fact that the latter 
prevented me from finishing the count is evidence enough that he was aware of it. 
As mentioned in the abstract from my diary, he suspected that the great mortality 
might be charged against management. I have shown that his argument that the 
pups were being trampled to death on the rookery has uo foundation in fact, but I 
did not mention, however, his answer to my cpiestion why he thought so. It was to 
the effect that the flattened condition of the dead pups showed that they had been 
trampled upon. Now, it is quite true that these half-decomposed bodies present a 
very mirch flattened appearance, but that is not surprising when we consider the 
amount of cartilage in their skeleton. Moreover, there is no doubt that they have 
been trampled upon, but that took place after they ‘were dead. After I had demon- 
strated to Selivauof and some of the natives that the puijs had died from starvation and 
F. C. B. 1896—6 
