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BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
not from any injuries received, there was evidently a load taken off their hearts, and 
lamentations over the great number of dead pups were heard all around. I mention 
this incident chiefly to show how little dependence can be placed upon the obser- 
vations made by the natives, and more particularly upon their deductions, or the 
explanations they see lit to make. 
From the above it may be regarded as well established that during the past 
season an unusual mortality took place among the seal pups on Bering Island, and that 
they died of starvation. There seems but one reasonable explanation of this phenom 
enon, viz, that they starved because their mothers were killed, aud as they were not 
killed on the island there seems to be no other logical conclusion but to assume that 
they were killed by the pelagic sealers. 
ALLEGED CHANGES OF HABITS. 
During the recent discussions relative to the habits of the fur-seals and to the 
seal fisheries, it has been asserted by various persons that the habits of the seals have 
undergone, or are undergoing, material changes. Curiously enough, such changes 
have been alleged by both sides, but while one side attributes certain alleged 
changes to the disturbance of the seals on the rookeries, the other side insists that 
certain other alleged changes are due to tlie interference of the pelagic sealers. 
It must not be forgotten that the habits of the fur-seals at the present time are 
the result of a long evolution, which dates back possibly millions of years. The 
habits of the ISTorth Pacific and South Pacific seals in most essential points are alike, 
and as these seals belong to very distinct species it is practically certain that these 
habits were formed before these species had emerged from the common ancestral 
stock. This separation probably dates back to the time when the ISTorth Pacific seals 
became geographically shut off from intermingling with the southern forms. From 
that early period the differentiation of the local habits of the former must have gone 
on for ages, until now there is inborn in every seal an instinct which is the inherited 
accumulation of the doings of tens of thousands of generations repeated every year. 
It must, moreover, be borne in mind that the fur-seals are gregarious animals. 
Such animals always act in flocks ; their habits are the habits of the flock. Individual 
deviation from the habits inborn does not materially affect the habits of the whole 
community. To effect a change in the habits of such a species it would be necessary 
not only that the bidk of each yearly class should change their habits in the same 
way, but also that the causes should continue long enough to allow the change to be 
transmitted to the offspring through an unknown number of generations. This is 
particularly true where, as in the present case, the disturbing causes mainly affect 
the male sex. 
The first detailed description of the habits of the northern fur-seal, after Steller’s 
account, is, as I have shown (p. (30), by Yeniaminof in 1839. The next by Bryant 
(1870) and Elliott (1874). No change of habits is alleged up to that time. In fact, 
these changes are supposed to have taken place during the last five to ten years. 
The theoretical considerations iiresented above have not been submitted with any 
intention of overriding by a priori reasoning any statement of alleged facts, though 
it is believed that its soundness is unassailable. It is only my intention to show the 
utter improbal)ility of any change of habits within the shoi t ])criod in which man has 
interfered with the fur seal in order to demand strong proof in support of the alleged 
