1899] THE HABITS OF THE NORTHERN FUR SEAL 



25 



Now, although these harems thus increased from day to day, so 

 that in four days the number of cows was about doubled, and the cows, 

 being in the proportion of (on the 3rd July) eighty to the bull, were 

 completely out of control and free to move about as they wished, yet 

 during all that time there were bulls hovering round the outskirts of 

 the harems, some of which were masters of no cows, and none of 

 which had succeeded in collecting a greater number than three each. 

 Nothing could better illustrate the fact that it is the cows, and not the 

 bulls, which have the real control of the harem-system. Over these 161 

 cows the bulls, in spite of all their bluster, had the flimsiest of nominal 

 dominion, and the cows were always able to, and frequently did, leave 

 their harems to dally with cowless bulls on the outside. Yet, whether 

 their number was 80 or 160, as long as they chose to sit massed 

 together on the ground which had been appropriated by the two stronger 

 bulls, no weaker rivals could approach to within a distance of 1 yards 

 from them. The master of the harem had no control over its occu- 

 pants, but he was absolute lord of the ground on which they sat. 



An almost better illustration of this was to be seen at the South 

 rookery, where, later in the season, there were often 200 cows on 

 shore with two bulls. Yet (as on the 26th July, when there were 

 287 cows on the beach) the division of the cows into harems was a 

 very unequal one, the smaller bull being only able to keep a very few 

 cows, while the larger one claimed the greater part of the rookery. 

 But the cows could pass over to the smaller bull's ground as often as 

 they liked, and he probably was father to a great many more of 

 the pups born in 1898 than those of the half-dozen cows over whom 

 he claimed control. 



At the same rookery on the 28th July, when there were over 190 

 cows on shore, the whole of this number was greedily claimed by the 

 larger bull, while the smaller bull was forced to sit apart outside the 

 patch of massed pups which lay just outside the rookery. True he 

 sometimes threatened to make descents on his rival's harem, but he had 

 no cows that he could really call his own until they themselves took 

 the initiative and went out to join him. 



Thus the inequality of the two harems at the North rookery kept 

 increasing until there came a time when the newly-arriving cows began 



