THE FUE SEAL: ORGANIZATION OF THE ROOKERIES. 87 



sketch-maps which follow, illustrative of these rookeries and the area and position of the Seals 

 upon them. Every one of these breeding-grounds slopes up gently from the sea, and on no one 

 of them is there anything like a muddy flat. 



I found it an exceedingly difficult matter to satisfy myself as to a fair general average number 

 of cows to each bull on the rookery; but, after protracted study,'! think it will be nearly correct 

 when I assign to each male a general ratio of from fifteen to twenty females at the stations nearest 

 the water; and for those back in order from that line to the rear, from five to twelve ; but there 

 are so many exceptional cases, so many instances where forty-five and fifty females are all under 

 the charge of one male; and then, again, where there are two or three females only, that this 

 question was and is not entirely satisfactory in its settlement to my mind. 



Near Ketavie Point, and just above it to the north, is an odd washout of the basalt by the 

 surf, which has chiseled, as it were, from the foundation of the island, a lava table, with a single 

 roadway or land passage to it. Upon the summit of this footstool I counted forty-five cows, all 

 under the charge of one old veteran. He had them penned up on this table-rock by taking his 

 stand at the gate, as it were, through which they passed up and passed down a Turkish brute 

 typified. 



UNATTACHED MALES. At the rear of all these rookeries there is invariably a large number 

 of able-bodied males who have come late, but who wait patiently, yet in vain, for families; most 

 of them having had to fight as desperately for the privilege of being there as any of their more 

 fortunately located neighbors, who are nearer the water, and in succession from there to where 

 they are themselves; but the cows do not like to be in any outside position. They cannot be 

 coaxed out where they are not in close company with their female mates and masses. They lie 

 most quietly and contentedly in the largest harems, and cover the surface of the ground so thickly 

 that there is hardly moving or turning room until the females cease to come from the sea. The 

 inaction on the part of the males in the rear during the breeding-season only serves to qualify 

 them to move into the places which are necessarily vacated by those males that are, in the mean 

 time, obliged to leave from virile exhaustion, or incipient wounds. All the surplus able-bodied 

 males, that have not been successful in effecting a landing on the rookeries, cannot at any one 

 time during the season be seen here on this rear line. Only a portion of their number are in 

 sight; the others are either loafing at sea, adjacent, or are hauled out in morose squads between 

 the rookeries on the beaches. 



COURAGE OF THE FUR SEALS. The courage with which the Fur Seal holds his position as 

 the head and guardian of a family, is of the highest order. I have repeatedly tried to drive them 

 from their harem pQsts, when they were fairly established on their stations, and have always 

 failed, with few exceptions. I might use every stone at my command, making all the noise I could. 

 Finally, to put their courage to the fullest, test, I have walked up to within twenty feet of an old 

 veteran, toward the extremeend of Tolstoi, who had only four cows in charge, and commenced with my 

 double-barreled fowling-piece to pepper him all over with tine mustard-seed shot, being kind enough, 

 in spite of my zeal, not to put out his eyes. His bearing, in spite of the noise, smell of powder, and 

 painful irritation which the fine shot must have produced, did not change in the least from the 

 usual attitude of determined plucky defense, which nearly all of the bulls assumed when attacked 

 with showers of stones and noise; he would dart out right and left with his long neck and catch 

 the timid cows, that furtively attempted to run after each report of my gnu, fling and drag them 

 back to their places under his head ; and then, stretching up to his full height look me directly 

 and defiantly in the face, roaring and chuckling most vehemently. The cows, however, soon got 

 away from him; they could not stand my racket in spite <>!' their dread of him; but he still stood 



