TOLSTOI ROOKERY. 373 



THE FUR SEAL'S SENSE OF SMELL. 



Much has been said about the fur seal's sense of smell. It is claimed that if 

 you go on the windward side of a seal he will detect you at once and awake. We 

 walked up on a bull from the windward side, approaching to within 10 feet without 

 awakening him. After standing beside him for an instant he awakened, opened his 

 eyes and looked at us sharply before he got out of the way. Whatever message his 

 sense of smell conveyed to him, it was the sense of sight that he obeyed. 



TOLSTOI ROOKERY. 



A dead bull was seen lying above one of the crosses in the area occupied by the 

 idle bulls. The cause of death was not apparent, and the animal was too much 

 decomposed for examination. We saw a large gray bull with a wound in the shoulder, 

 from which pus was flowing. This and the wound on the head of the dying pup 

 at Poloviua are the only instances so far where wounds have shown evidence of 

 suppuration. 



There is a tendency on the part of the holostiaki on Tolstoi to stampede right down 

 through the harems to the beach, and on the occasion of every visit to this rookery 

 many half bulls are seen to make their way down the cliff and across the sands, in 

 every case occasioning numerous disturbances in the harems. This rookery seems to 

 be unfortunate in not having anywhere in its entire length a runway for the bachelors 

 to haul out. They are forced to follow down to the angle of the sands, climb the hill, 

 and work back to their hauling ground behind the hill slope of the rookery. It is 

 possible that some of them work up through the rookery, but none have been noticed. 

 If they tried this early in the season it is not wonderful that numerous pups are killed 

 by the fights thus occasioned. Besides this, the harems tend to mass in a long tongue- 

 like projection at the point about which bachelors must haul out. In going to the sea 

 the bachelors try to avoid the long detour, and whenever they go into the harems there 

 is constant disturbance. 



Unless the holostiaki are in rapid motion, the remonstrance of a bull stops them. 

 This is certainly true during the close breeding season. Now, however, many of 

 the young fellows persist in going through the rookery regardless of the bulls, and 

 are able to do so. 



There are many virgin females in the outlying harems on the slope of Tolstoi. In 

 approaching a rock for the purpose of getting a view of the dead-pup area a harem 

 was stampeded, all the cows but one leaving the bull. She was evidently a virgin. 

 Within a few yards two other bulls were guarding other virgins, one each. They 

 apparently think more of them than of a whole harem of adult cows. 



A pod of pups was closely approached. They growled lazily, but made no move 

 to get away until an effort was made to touch them, then one snapped angrily at the 

 outstretched hand, and the whole lot hurried off. 



ZAPADNI GULLY. 



The gully at Zapadni, where the excessive mortality of pups was noted, is, like 

 Tolstoi, a place where many bachelors try to make a short cut to the sea, and as the 

 gully is narrow their passage results in great confusion and in the trampling of many 

 pups. One might appropriately say that the gully at Zapadui, the sands of Tolstoi, 



