1899] THE HABITS OF THE NORTHERN FUR SEAL 21 



play and learn to swim in safety. Such bays are to be found on 

 Copper Island at Gavarushkaya and Sikatchinskaya, while parts of 

 the great northern rookery of Bering's Island are fairly well protected 

 from storms. Thus on shore all sorts of ground seem suited to their 

 wants, except, as already noticed, flat sandy areas, and beaches in the too 

 close proximity of overhanging cliffs. Here landslips have been known 

 to occur, burying and killing a number of the cows, as at Palata in 

 Copper Island ; while at Orilli Kamen, another Copper Island rookery, 

 I found the skeletons of three unfortunates (one of which at least was 

 a bull) under a great boulder which had fallen down from the cliff 

 above the rookery and crushed them. But perhaps their most favourite 

 haunts are cliffs where the slope is not very steep and large boulders 

 lie plentifully strewn on the face. Here they ascend often to a 

 height of a hundred feet or more, easily traversing places where a man 

 could hardly climb. Such cliffs are very numerous at St. Paul 

 Island, and here seals may be found asleep in all sorts of strange 

 retreats on the cliff-sides, whence, if unexpectedly disturbed, they 

 will often jump blindly down a steep incline, facing a fall that 

 would kill a man. The little pups, too, are very fond of lying asleep 

 with their heads, or sometimes their whole bodies in holes, under rocks. 

 When disturbed they rush in hot haste, " baaing " lustily, in any 

 direction in which at the time their nose happens to be turned, not 

 looking in the least to see whither their precipitate flight will lead 

 them. 



Robben Island — Comparison of Mr. Elliott's Observations. 



My first acquaintance with the Fur Seal was gained at Eobben 

 Island, and a mere glance at the little rookery there was sufficient to 

 show that neither is the animal, as a whole, deserving of the reputa- 

 tion for intelligence with which Mr. W. H. Elliott has clothed it, nor 

 is the cow the sweet-tempered, dove-like creature which the same 

 writer has described. Not only were the bulls exceedingly active and 

 constantly engaged in rushing blindly hither and thither, utterly regard- 

 less as to whether they trampled the cows or pups under their flippers, 

 but the cows, although they sat huddled closely together as if in a state 

 of affectionate good-fellowship, were constantly snapping at each other 

 in a bad-tempered manner, and savagely resented the approach of all 

 pups except their own. A dead pup which I picked up at some little 

 distance from the rookery showed, on examination, that it had received 

 a bite, probably from a cow, on the head, where the punctures made 

 by two canine teeth were plainly visible in the thick skin. The 

 greater part of the head was in a rotten and putrid condition as if a 

 fatal erysipelas had set in as a result of the bite. 



