ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Notes on the Habits of the Northern Fur Seal. 

 By G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton. 



Introduction. 



There is probably no species of wild mammal to whose life-history so 

 much attention has been paid as the Northern Fur Seal (Otaria ursina). 

 For about a century and a half a source of wealth to large and 

 powerful companies, it was after the first discovery of its breeding 

 haunts by the ill-fated Vitus Bering in 1742, the object of a slaughter 

 as indiscriminate as it was inimical to the permanent interests of 

 those who took part in it. In later years, however, when a diminished 

 herd plainly foreshadowed the fatal effect of this foolish destruction of 

 valuable animals, every effort has been made to preserve the seals, 

 and they have been for some time the objects of the most careful study 

 on the part of the governments who own their breeding haunts, a 

 study which culminated in the appointment of the International Com- 

 missions of 1891-93 and 1896-97. 



Volumes upon volumes have been devoted to the Northern Fur 

 Seal ; of these, very many are blue-books, or government publications, 

 a large portion of which are of too patriotic a nature to be safely relied 

 upon by scientific men. Some other accounts of the seals, which 

 cannot be included in the above category, have been tinged with a 

 depth of poetical imagination obviously intended for popular rather 

 than scientific reading, so that the Commission of 1896-97 found much 

 to correct or supplement in our knowledge of even the most simple 

 features of the life-history of the animal. Bearing this in mind, I 

 think I need no excuse for putting together a brief account of the 

 observations which I made during my visits to the rookeries. In doing 

 so I shall entirely exclude all matter relating to the commercial or 

 diplomatic questions at issue, and I hope my notes may be taken as a 

 perfectly unbiassed account of what came under my own notice. 



Before I go further, it may be well to state that I assume that all 

 naturalists are acquainted with the general facts of the life-history of the 



2 NAT. SC. VOL. XV. NO. 89. I 7 



