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First arrival of bulls, cows, and pups at St. George Island, Bering Sea, 1871-1891, inclusive (from the official record).

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Appendix C..

YOUNG SEALS ARE BORN ON LAND OR ICE; DO NOT
SWIM AT FIRST, AND CAN NOT NURSE IN THE
WATER.

land or ice.

No species of seal in any part of the world, All seals born on gives birth to its young in the water, either among the sea-bears and sea-lions (Otariida) or among the true seals (Phocida.) In the great majority of species the young are brought forth on rocks along the shore, but in a few kinds of hair-seals, notably the harps and hoods, they are born on the ice floes of the far north.

sible in water.

Not only are all kinds of seals born on land (or Nursing imposice), but they remain there while nursing, for

seals can not suckle their young in the sea; the

young are unable to hold their breath long, and would drown if they attempted to nurse in the

water.

dread the water.

However strange it may seem to those unfa-Young seals miliar with the facts, all young seals are afraid of the water at first and enter it with great reluctance. At the island of St. Paul, in August, we have seen mother seals take their young by the skin of the

387

dread the water.

Young seals back and carry them out into the water, much against the will of the young, and have seen this repeated several times before the young were permitted to land, which they did in a state of great excitement and fatigue. Captain Bryant, who spent many years at the Pribilof Islands as chief Government agent, states: "It seems strange that an animal like this, born to live in the water for the greater portion of its life, should be at first helpless in what seems to be its natural element, yet these young seals if put into it before they are five or six weeks old will drown as quickly as a young chicken. They are somewhat slow, too, in learning to swim, using at first only the fore flippers, carrying the hind ones rigidly extended and partially above water. As soon as they are able to swim (usually about the last week of August) they move from the breeding places on the exposed points and headlands to the coves and bays, where they are sheltered from the heavy surf, and where there are low sand beaches. (Bryant in Allen's Pinnipeds, 1880, p. 387.)

Captain Musgrave, who was shipwrecked on the Auckland Isles for more than a year and a half, has published some important notes respecting the sea-lions of those islands. Concerning the young, he states: "It might be supposed

dread the water.

that these animals, even when young, would Young seals readily go into the water-that being one of their natural instincts, but, strange to say, such is not the case; it is only with the greatest difficulty and a wonderful display of patience, that the mother succeeds in getting her young in for the first time. I have known a cow to be three days getting her calves down half a mile and into the water, and, what is most surprising of all, it can not swim when it is in the water."

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