The Days of a Man ^1897 



Furthermore, on the killing grounds the young 

 males are wholly apathetic, not paying the slightest 

 attention to the slaughter of their comrades. And 

 near the harems no notice is taken so long as the 

 observer stands still. If he moves at all, however, 

 the herd is quickly excited, the females rushing 

 into the sea, the males angrily standing their ground. 

 When one approaches near enough, the beachmaster 

 makes a savage lunge ; but he never pursues or moves 

 more than a rod or so from his stand, for to leave 

 short it is perhaps never to recover it again. After the 

 memories disturber comes to rest, everything quiets down, 

 and within an hour all are back in their proper places. 

 These facts I mention because of outcry in certain 

 quarters against alleged 'breaking up of the rook- 

 eries" by driving the animals into the water. 



On St. Paul and St. George, as already stated, 

 our final and fairly accurate count of the pups esti- 

 mated their number and therefore the number of 

 breeding females at 129,216. I myself enumerated 

 so many animals that I began to count endless 

 "pods" of pups in my dreams. 



On the Meanwhile the Satellite had stayed around, sharing 



"Satellite" tne d u ties of the patrol, and about the middle of 

 August Thompson and I took passage in her to the 

 Commander Islands for inspection of the Russian 

 herds. The voyage was long and tedious, the vessel 

 being neither swift nor luxurious. Indeed, in the 

 British navy so at least I was told there is no 

 effort to make even the commanding officer com- 

 fortable, lest he become effeminate; Captain Allen's 

 quarters, for example, were over the screw and were 

 extremely plain. My evenings I used to spend there 



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