THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY 811 



Russia has one of about the same size on the Com- 

 mander Islands. These rookeries are now carefully 

 protected and may increase in size. 



Family Life of the FuR-SEAii 



Fur-seals are curious gregarious animals. During 

 the winter they migrate at sea to warmer waters. As 

 the breeding season approaches, the males arrive 

 first and take up definite stations, which they hold 

 and protect. The younger males are not allowed to 

 come upon the breeding grounds but are driven aside 

 to form colonies of their own. During the time that 

 the bulls, as the mature males are called, are on 

 land, they neither eat nor drink, and their sleep is 

 limited to a few minutes at a time. During this long 

 period, usually about four months, they are sus- 

 tained by a thick layer of fat or blubber, which is 

 stored up during their migrations. 



The cows, as the female seals are called, come 

 ashore a short time before their young are born. 

 Each bull keeps from one to seventy-five cows in his 

 harem, zealously guarding them and their pups day 

 and night lest some other bull take some of them 

 away from him. Being several times the size of the 

 cows, the bull has little trouble in keeping them to- 

 gether. The number of cows to the harem depends 

 upon the location of the harem in the rookery and 

 the size and age of the bull. The older and stronger 

 bulls close to the water have larger harems than the 

 young bulls on the edge of the breeding grounds. 



A female seal produces her first offspring in her 

 third year. But a single pup is born annually. The 



