158 Fish Stories 



management of the rookeries falls largely into the hands of 

 the cows, and they do as they please. 



The single pup, a little jet-black fellow looking like a 

 bear's cub and weighing from ten to twelve pounds, is gen- 

 erally born soon after the arrival of the cow. It is very 

 active, hardy and tenacious of life, for the first week of its 

 life dividing its time between play, sleep and bleating for its 

 mother. When two or three weeks old the mother leaves 

 it to go to feed. The bull objects at first to her going, but 

 she always succeeds in getting away when his back is turned 

 or when he is sleeping. She goes off 200 miles or more 

 from the islands to the feeding banks towards the south- 

 west, and may be gone anywhere from three or four days 

 to more than a week. While the cows are gone the pups 

 gather in great groups called " pods," and play or sleep. 

 This podding of the pups is a wise feature in the fur seal 

 economy, for it takes the little fellows out of the range of 

 the harem, and from under the feet of the big lumbering 

 bulls. The bull fur seal weighs from 400 to 500 pounds, 

 consequently his stepping upon a small pup may produce 

 disastrous results. But this is not often, for Kotik, the 

 pup, is as tough as India-rubber, and pops out of the way 

 as easily as a ball. The pups are rarely killed in the strife 

 of the bulls, unless already enfeebled by attacks of the worm 

 Uncinaria. This vicious little worm, about an inch long, is 

 their sole enemy on land. The eggs are in the sand on which 

 some of the pups lie. The worms hatch in the stomach, 

 and fasten themselves to the small intestine just at its 

 termination. They suck the blood of the young pup, and of 

 those attacked probably nearly all die of anaemia. The 

 same worm works great havoc among young dogs. Even 

 children among the poor in Asia are attacked by a species of 

 Uncinaria. According to Dr. Charles W. Stiles, the same 

 worm is a large factor in the child-labor problem in the 

 South. 



By the time the mother seal comes back, plump and well 



