SEALS. 345 



rutting season only serves to qualify them to move into the places 

 vacated by those males who are obliged to leave from exhaus- 

 tion, or to take the position of fearless and jealous protectors for 

 the young pups in the fall. The corn-age with which the fur- 

 seal holds his position as the head and guardian of a family is 

 of the very highest order compared with that of other animals. I 

 have repeatedly tried to drive them when they have fairly estab- 

 lished themselves, and have almost always failed, using every 

 stone at my command, making all the noise I could, and finally, 

 to put their courage to the full test, I walked up to within twenty 

 feet of a bull at the rear and extreme end of Tolstoi Rookery, 

 who had four cows in charge, and commenced with my double- 

 barrelled breech-loading shot-gun to pepper him all over with 

 mustard-seed or dust-shot. His bearing in spite of the noise, 

 smell of powder, and pain, did not change in the least from the 

 usual attitude of determined defence which nearly all the bulls 

 assume when attacked with showers of stones and noise ; he 

 would dart out right and left and catch the cows which timidly 

 attempted to run after each report, fling and drag them back 

 to their places ; then, stretching xip to his full height, look me 

 directly and defiantly in the face, roaring and spitting most 

 vehemently. The cows, however, soon got away from him, but 

 he still stood his ground, making little charges on me of ten or 

 fifteen feet in a succession of gallops or lunges, spitting furiously 

 and then retreating to the old position, back of which he would 

 not go, fully resolved to hold his own or die in the attempt. 



This courage is all the more noteworthy from the fact that, 

 in regard to man, it is invariably of a defensive character. The 

 seal, if it makes you turn when you attack it, never follows 

 you much farther than the boundary of its station, and no aggra- 

 vation will compel it to become offensive, as far as I have been 

 able to observe. 



The apathy with which the young are treated by the old on 

 the breeding-grounds is somewhat strange. I have never seen 

 a cow caress or fondle her offspring, and should it stray but a 

 short distance from the harem, it can be picked up and killed 

 before the mother's eyes, without causing her to show the 

 slightest concern. The same indifference is exhibited by the 

 bull to all that takes place outside of the boundary of his 

 seraglio. While the pups are, however, within the limits of his 

 harem-ground he is a jealous and fearless protector ; but if the 

 little animals pass beyond this boundary, then they may be 



