42 
FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA, 1909. 
result in forcing the enumerator of the seal herd to resort to esti- 
mation in arriving at their numbers. 
The result of experience has been to show that previous censuses 
made in the manner adopted in 1909 have been inexact in showing 
fewer seals than actually were in existence. This probably will be 
the case with the census of 1909. It is altogether probable that the 
estimates of the bachelors made by me in 1909 are too low, due to 
the allowance of a higher death rate than actually occurs among 
them. 
DEAD PUPS. 
In October, 1908, and again in 1909, counts were made of dead 
pups on the various rookeries on St. Paul Island. These counts were 
made in some instances by myself or assistant agents and in others 
by intelligent natives detailed by me. The count follows: 
Dead Pups, St. Paul Island. 
1909. 
1908. 
Dead. 
Starving. 
Lagoon 
4 
15 
Tolstoi Cliffs 
152 
104 
6 
Tolstoi 
287 
440 
14 
Ketovi 
36 
77 
o 
Amphitheater 
17 
10 
Lukanin 
117 
8 
Gorbatch Cliffs 
1 
10 
1 
Gorbatch 
245 
319 
12 
Ardiguen : 
24 
33 
2 
Reef 
701 
881 
24 
Zapadni Reef 
4 
17 
Little Zapadni 
183 
3G9 
270 
6 
Zapadni 
426 
18 
Polavina 
45 
131 
Polavina Cliffs 
52 
2 
Little Polavina 
4 
36 
Northeast Point 
854 
722 
17 
Sea Lion Rock 
126 
6 
Total 
3,003 
3,786 
125 
In 1908, with approximately 50,000 births, 3,000 dead pups were 
found in October of that year on St. Paul alone. What the death 
rate was on St. George is impossible to determine, as foxes eat the 
dead pups’ bodies immediately after death. Furthermore, the 
bodies of such pups as die early in the season have, by October, 
almost entirely disintegrated, and can not be seen when counting is 
done late in the fall. In 1909, with a diminished herd of cows, more 
dead pups were counted than in 1908. We must believe that 
mortality among pups was greater in 1909 than in 1908, caused, 
undoubtedly, by increased pelagic sealing, and that such mortality 
while the pups are on land is in the neighborhood of 10 per cent. 
On August 12 the dead pups on Tolstoi sand flat were counted, 
with a view of finding uncinariated pups. All seals on the flat 
