MAMMALS. ' 57 



meat than the old ones, and are moreover much easier to capture. I 

 have counted nearly seventy of these atluks on a space of two acres. 



When a jiregnant female has chosen the place where she is to have 

 her young, she makes an excavation from six to ten feet in length under 

 the snow, and from three to five feet wide, the height varying with the 

 thickness of the snow covering. The atluk is at one extremity of this 

 excavation, and in s,uch a position that it is always a ready channel of 

 retreat in case of danger. 



The first young found in the Upper Cumberland waters was during 

 the early days of March ; still I have taken a foetus from the mother in 

 the middle of April. The inost profitable time for hunting the young 

 seal is during the month of April ; after this date they have shed so 

 much that the skins are nearly worthless till the hispid hair has got to 

 be of the proper length, w'hen they are considered as the prime article, 

 and second only to the young of Calloceplialus vituUnus in quality. 



The first young one I procured that had begun to shed was Aj)ril 15. 

 I have seen examples that were nearly or quite destitute of the white 

 coat, but still not liaving the next coat in sight. Such specimens on 

 close examination will be found to have a very fine coat of the new hair, 

 but so short as not to be perceptible except on close examination, still 

 showing the exact location and distribution of the dark and light mark- 

 ings ; the sldn at this time is very black, and often much scratched up, 

 probably by the mother in trying to make the young one shift for itself. 

 I often examined the stomachs of young as well as adults, but till after 

 they had begun shedding the white coat, and were, in all probability, 

 25 to 30 days old, I found nothing but the mother's milk. After they 

 begin to shift for themselves, their food, for a time at least, consists of 

 Gammari of diiferent species. 



Before the young shed the white coat, they are from 23 to 36 inches 

 from the nose to end of flippers ; the average the season through, from 

 a good series of measurements, was about 30 inches. They are very 

 variable in color; some are pure white; others very white on the lower 

 parts, but more or less dusky on back ; others again are a fine straw- 

 yellow^, with the same dusky variation as in the white ones. The yellow 

 is also vaiiable in the intensity of shade. Earely some are found that 

 are quite dusky all over, especially on the head and back ; these are 

 generally small and scrawny individuals. The hair is also quite as vari- 

 able in textiu'e as in color. In some it is flue, long, and woolly (mostly 

 in the pure white examples). In others it is straight or wa^y, while 



