478 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



The cove iii front of the warehouse is full of pups. Three of them are on the 

 platform of the warehouse among the boats. Half a dozen are tugging at the end of 

 a big rope that hangs from a wharf. I do not see why animals that act this way 

 when young can not be domesticated. 



ZOLTOI. 



I visited the Reef in the afternoon. Zoltoi Bluffs has an unusually large number 

 of fine-looking old bulls out oil its slope. Among them also are an increased number of 

 bachelors. The bluffs look very much as they used to look when we first arrived and 

 when drives were still being made. 



Unusual to-day was the fact that the bulls and bachelors extended diagonally 

 across between the sand dunes connecting with tlie drove hauled up on the other side 

 of the neck. It was necessary to go in at the angle to-day, as hundreds of bulls would 

 have been routed out by attempting to go across and along the brow of the cliff toward 

 the east. 



Contrary to what has been the case for some time past, the majority of the bulls 

 and bachelors were up and stirring, playing, and in some cases fighting, in the manner 

 of the earlier days. The storm, which has been continuous for a week, has probably 

 driven most of these animals in. 



Under the brow of the cliffs back from the sands there are hundreds of fine-looking 

 pups, many of them in their gray coats. Among the pups are many bachelors, giving 

 to this place which was formerly the "hospital" of Gorbatch all the appearance of 

 a rookery. There were no harems whatever on this ground in the breeding season. 

 Mr. Tingle, who, according to the log, estimated a rookery of 10,000 seals here, must 

 have based it upon some such scene as this. The natives say that there never was a 

 rookery here. Pups are out in the same way along the foot of the cliffs back from the 

 village. 



GORBATCH. 



There are an unusual number of cows out all along the cliff portion of Gorbatch. 

 The old bulls, too, are thickly strewn about the bases and in the angles of the sand 

 dunes, much as in the earlier part of the season. They look like the same animals 

 returned from feeding. 



On reaching the parade ground it becomes necessary to keep in the middle of it, 

 as the seals from Gorbatch have overflowed on that side and the population of the 

 Reef is steadily pulling back into it from the other. For the past three weeks there 

 has been a fringe of bachelors in the grass just back of the bowlder beach to the 

 east. These have now pulled back at least 100 yards to the scattered rocks. It is a 

 continuous line from bere to the end of the Reef hauling ground. 



REEF. 



Going up on the rock castle back of the Reef hauling ground the view of the Reef 

 rookery becomes very interesting. The hauling ground has filled up with bachelors, 

 among which are many cows and pups. Three and 4 year old bachelors are going 

 through all the motions in play of the bulls in the breeding season. They brace and 

 push like football players, catching one another in the throat or snapping viciously at 



