TflE FUR SEAL: REPRODUCTION. Ill 



harem, after he has been more or less exhausted by the vital drafts made upou him, she must wait. 

 I have observed instances of this character in which the female teased the male for hours and 

 hours before arousing him. 



PELAGIC COITION IMPOSSIBLE. In this act of coition on these breeding-grounds of Saint Paul 

 and Saint George, I have noticed the fact that, whenever the female was well covered by the 

 male on the flat or smooth shelves of rock or earth, they moved and shuffled about without any 

 particular effective coition until brought up againt a rougher inequality, or some fragments of lava 

 shingle, so characteristic of the rookery grounds. The reason for this is due to the fact, that in 

 spite of the great weight of the male, six times more than that of the female which he covers, the 

 orgasms are so rapid and violent that, unless the female is held by some other agency thau the 

 weight of the male, she is literally shoved ahead and away from under him. This fact I call 

 attention to, as it aloue is sufficient, upon the slightest reflection, to satisfy any judicial mind that 

 it is a physical impossibility for these Seals to copulate in the water. Under no conceivable position 

 assumed for this supposed pelagic coition could effectual sexual connection be made. 1 



ACTION OF REPRODUCTION. The male serves the female exactly as a big Newfoundland dog 

 would serve a small terrier slut. The "Seecatchie" draws his heavy body over and upou the out- 

 stretched spine of the female, who lies prone before him on her stomach; so that when the male 

 has adjusted himself, which he does by arching his back from the shoulders to the on coccyx, he 

 covers her so completely that nothing of her body can be seen, except a portion of her head just 

 peering out from between his fore-flippers and under his broad chest. 



Notwithstanding their great rapidity and the muscular power employed, the orgasms last, 

 without interruption, for the surprising space of from eight to fourteen minutes not a second's 

 intermission. Of course, toward the close of the season, when the male is tired, he does not remain 

 in coitu longer than three or four minutes. On account of the vigor and duration of this first 

 coitus, I am inclined to think that that female has no further intercourse with that male, or any 

 other one, during the rest of the season. She is satisfied, and passes rapidly out of heat. Certain 

 it is that she is not noticed by him again; she goes up to his seraglio- grounds, to and from the sea, 

 seeking her young and feeding undisturbed for the balance of the time; also, that the other bulls 

 seem to recognize this condition of passed sexual requirement and satisfaction, in her case, by 

 paying her no attention. 



PERIOD OF GESTATION. Thus it is apparent that the period of gestation in the Fur Seal is 

 nearly, lacking a few days, twelve calendar mouths; for the next year finds her again heavy with 

 young at almost exactly the same day that, she gave birth to her previous offspring in the prior 

 season. The systematic and regular appearance of the females every year upou the Pribylov 

 Islands at such a time, usually in June or July, without the slightest regard to what the weather 



Those extremely heavy adalt males which arrive first in the season, and take their stations on the rookeries, are 

 s Cat that they do not exhibit a wrinkle or a fold of the skins enveloping their blubber-lined bodies; most of this 

 fatty deposit is found aronud the shoulders and the neck, though a warm coat of blubber covers all the other portions 

 of the body save the flippers; this blubber thickening of the neck and chest is characteristic of the adult males only, 

 which are, by its provisions, enabled to sustain the extraordinary protracted fasting periods incident to their habit of 

 life and reproduction. 



When those superlatively fleshy bulls first arrive, a curious body tremor seems to attend every movement which 

 the animals make on land; their fat appears to ripple backward and forward under their hides, like waves; as they 

 alternate with their flippers in walking, the whole form of the "Seecatchie" shakes as a bowl full of jelly docs when 

 agitated on the table before us. 



There is also a perfect uniformity in the coloration of I lie breeding coats of the Fur Seals; and it is strikingly 

 manifest while inspecting the rookeries late in July, whon they are solidly massed thereon. At a quarter mile distance, 

 the whole immense aggregate of animal life seems to be fused into a huge homogeneous body that is alternately roused 

 up in sections and then composed, just as a quantity of iron filings, covering the bottom of a saucer, will rise and fall, 

 when a magnet is passed over and around the dish. 



