THE FUR SEAL: REPRODUCTION. 107 



as carried out by the Fur Seals on the breeding-grounds of the Pribylov Islands, should be under- 

 stood distinctly and authoritatively, before the truth or falsity of certain hypotheses, which depend 

 upon it, can be intelligently discussed. The general impression and commonly-received opinion 

 in the popular, as well as the scientific world, is that the amphibian life of the ocean breeds in the 

 water thereof; or, in other words, that the fertilization of the seal-life takes place by coition therein, 

 and that the young may be born in this watery element, safely nurtured and cared for by their 

 mothers. 1 No end of fanciful rumor and romance has been published touching this point. We are 

 told that some man of great credibility has seen Seals in the water, with their new-born clasped 

 to their bosoms, rising in the waves to look at their disturbers, and then sinking, to carry away 

 their young to safety and quiet. To this fanciful description, undoubtedly, the mermaid owes its 

 origin in our recent mythology ; for the Hair Seal, in especial, has a bland, round, full physiog- 

 nomy ; the large circular eyes are placed more in front of the skull than in the crania of any other 

 genera of its kind. Such a head popping up suddenly in front of the mariner might naturally 

 suggest a human face ; and it needs but a very little embellishment to trim it with long hair, 

 place mamma? on its bosom, and all the other peculiar attributes of the yellow-haired mermaid 

 so celebrated in song and art. 



FINE OPPORTUNITIES FOR OBSERVATION. Therefore, what I wish to distinctly settle with 

 regard to the reproduction of the Fur Seal, which I now have under consideration, is that mooted 

 question as to the place, the manner, and the time of the union of the two sexes necessary for the 

 reproduction of its kind. I have no personal knowledge of the system of fertilization employed, 

 with reference to it, by the Phocidce; hence I shall not attempt to describe it. 2 What I have 



'Reasonably enough, the closet naturalist, no matter how able, will be deceived now and then in this manner by 

 untrustworthy statements made by those who are sujtposed to know by personal observation of what they affirm. 



As an apt illustration of this confusion which the best of closet naturalists are thrown into by untrustworthy 

 information touching this very matter, I may cite the case of Hamilton, who, in 1839, while writing of the Fur Seal of 

 Cook and Forstcr, discovered in particular by them on South Georgia, in 1771, declares it to be no Fur Seal at all! Ho 

 feels warranted in doing so, because one Captain Weddell says so. This authority was a hardy sailor who made sealing 

 a specialty in the Antarctic during 1823-'26. Hamilton, after specifying the wide range of this Arctoceptialue, "at 

 Dusky Bay, New Zealand, in New Georgia, Staten Land, Juan Fernandez, and the Gallapagos," goes on to say: 



" It will be observed that several of these authorities, particularly Dampier and Cook, speak of the fineness of the 

 fur of this Seal. It is probably these statements which have led the able author of the article Pheque in the "Diet. 

 Classique d'Hist. Naturelle" to state that this Seal is the Fur Seal of commerce. His words are: 'L'otarii de Forster 

 est lo Pkoquo & fourrures dcs pecheurs europe"ens.' But this, we suspect, is a mistake. No one -will doubt that Captain 

 Weddell was familiar with the Fur Seal. He was also familiar with the Ursine Seal, both as encountered in its haunt* 

 and as described by naturalists ; and yet, when speaking of the Ursine Seal (so denominated by him), he never once 

 hints that its fur has any peculiar value, but the contrary." Amphibious Caruivora. Ediuburg, 1839, p. 265. 



Thus Hamilton quotes this old sailor, Weddell, throughout his whole memoir, with the utmost trust; and in the 

 same manner others have been cited. They are worthless, unless taken " cum grano salis." The " long and short" of 

 it is this: when most of the seafaring sealers and whalers are in the field, they are blind to everything except the 

 mere capture of their quarry. Wheu they return, they are importuned, usually at first, for details which, in fact, they 

 have never thought of, while away. 



2 "The inconsequential numbers of the Hair Seal around and on the Pribylov Islands, seem to be characteristic of 

 all Alaskan waters and the northwest coast ; also, the Phocidte are equally scant on the Asiatic littoral margins. Only 

 the following four species are known to exist throughout the entire extent of that vast marine area, viz : 

 PHOCA VITULINA Everywhere, between Bering Straits and California. 

 PHOCA FCETIDA Plover Bay, Norton's Sound, Knskokvim mouth, and Bristol Bay, of Bering Sea ; Cape Seartze 



Kammin, Arctic Ocean to Point Barrow. 



ERIGNATHUS BARBATUS Kamtchatkan coast, Norton's Sound, Kuskokvim month, and Bristol Bay, of Bering Sea. 

 HISTRIOPUOCA FASCIATA Yukon mouth, and coast south to Bristol Bay, of Bering Sea and drifting ice therein. 



Then, in additiou to this, Mr. Ivan Petrov, the special agent of the Tenth Onsns, I'uited States Army, reports 

 the presence of a land-locked Seal in the fresh waters of Iliamua Lake, and also in Lake Walker. It may bo as distinct 

 from any of the Phocidce above enumerated as is the Baikal or the Caspian Se.-ils ; and, as such, I suggest that it shall 

 receive the name of Phoca petrovi, wheu it is eventually secured, and if identified as now to our lists. Preliminary 

 Report of Progress, Census of Alaska: Ivan Petrov, Washington, December, 1880, p. 45. 



In this connection, it is a somewhat curious fact that the description which Aristotle [300 B. C.] gives of the 



