Parade to Pribilof

Along the coasts of Oregon and Washington last week, captains of U. S. Coast Guard cutters were waiting the arrival of the Pribilof fur seals, whose annual migration was reported on the move. When the seals were sighted, plunging and barking on their way to the Pribilof Islands off Alaska, the Coast Guardsmen would chug out to follow them, to guard them in their curious hegira.

It is the Coast Guard's duty to superintend the seal-hunting of coastal Indian tribes, the Quillayute, the Makah of Neah Bay, Wash., and further north the Haida of Sitka, Alaska. No hunters except these Indians and other aborigines in whom the privilege is vested by the sealing treaty of 1911 between Japan, Great Britain, U. S. and Russia, are allowed to kill Pribilof seals while migrating. Indians are allowed to do so only in canoes, manned by five or less hunters, armed with spears or harpoons. Power boats and firearms are forbidden. Last year hunters killed about 2,000 members of the Pribilof herd.

Until the seals are within 60 miles of the Pribilof Islands the Coast Guard boats will follow them. After that they will be left to disperse among their desolate rookeries, to conduct their queer and frigid propagation, to make ready for their next tour of the Pacific which will start three months after arrival, early in August.

Pribilof seals, of which there are now nearly a million, have more valuable pelts than other seals. Their brief residence on their islands interrupts a year of peregrination during which they proceed, usually at a depth of 100 fathoms, as far south as San Diego, Calif., or, following the Aleutian Islands to the coast of Asia, the southern extremity of Japan. When southern waters grow too tepid, the seals return to their islands, the cows to breed their young, the bulls to fast and later copulate, the pups to learn how to swim, the "bachelor" seals (males under seven years old) to establish their separate colony and conduct small restless migrations of their own.

Bull fur seals, about 6 ft. long, 4 1/2 ft, around, weigh from 400 to 500 Ib. They are able to stand nearly erect on land, to lollop along over a rocky beach as fast as a man, though they soon get out of breath. During the mating season they will chase creatures who trespass on their breeding grounds. Sharp-toothed, they can bite savagely. They live to be about 14 years old. They arrive at the Pribilof Islands early in May, three weeks before the cows, stay there until August. Each bull has a seraglio of from 30 to 100 cows.

Cows weigh about 80 Ibs. Not longer than 48 hours after arriving at the Pribilofs, each gives birth to a pup. Two weeks later the cow seals desert their progeny, returning at ever-lengthening periods to feed them, investigate their growth, teach them how to swim. Their rookeries are situated along the shore or a little inland among the barren rocks.

Puppy-seals learn to swim when they are a month or six weeks old; if they tumble into the water earlier they drown. Like all Pribilof seals, they take part in the winter excursion, leaving with their mothers in November. Female pups begin to bear young in three years. With the exception of the Indians' yearly toll only the adolescent "bachelor" seals are now allowed to be killed for their fur.

On their migration, Pribilof seals parade in pairs or singly, not in a herd. They can stay under water for seven hours without coming up for air; after heavy storms sailors have seen them on the surface resting and wallowing in the waves. They feed upon squid, Alaska pollack, other small fish.

Of interest to the U. S. Biological Survey and state fish hatcheries is the question of whether, in rambling up the continental coast, Pribilof seals eat many salmon. Washington salmon fisheries say yes; Government experts say no. This year the Indian seal-hunters have been requested to cut open the stomachs of their kill, examine the Contents.

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