ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR CHARLES RUSSELL, Q. C. M. P. 31 



They are not observed in the water ia any numbers until they appear on the shore. 

 Iiuniediafel^ on landing they are taken possession of by the nearest males who 

 compel them to lie down in tlie si)aces they have reserved for their families. For a 

 few days the femnles arrive slowly, but by the 25th of the mouth thousands land 

 daily. As soon as the males in the, line nearest to the shore get each seven or eight 

 females in their possession, those higher up watch their opportunity and steal them 

 from them. This they accomidish by seiziug the females by the neck as a cat takes 

 her kitten. Those still higher up pursue the same method until the entire breeding 

 space is tilled. 



And tlien he ffoes on to describe the fighting among them for the 

 possession. Will yoa contrast those two pictures? 



Again, in 1874, Mr. Klliott, in his book which I have already referred 

 to on the seal Islands — the book published in 1881 at the Government 

 Press Printing Office says on page 35: 



Between the 12th and 14th of June, the first of the cow-seals, as a rule, come up 

 from the sea; then the long agony of the waiting bulls is over, and they signalize 

 it by a period of universal, spasmodic, desperate lighting among themselves. 

 Though they have quarreled all the time from the moment they first landed, and 

 continue to'do so until the end of the season, in August, yet that lighting which 

 takes place at this date is the bloodiest and most vindictive known t() the seal. I 

 presume that the heaviest percentage of mutilation and death among the old males 

 from these brawls, occur iu this week of the earliest appearance of the females. 



Then he, like Mr. Bryant, describes the organization of the seraglios? 

 at page 30. He says : 



They are noticed and received 

 that is the females are — 



by the males on the waterline stations with attention; they are alternately coaxed 

 and urged up on the rocks, as far as these beach-masters can do so, by chuckling, 

 whistling, and roaring, and then they are immediately under the most jealous super- 

 vision; but, owing to the covetous and ambitious nature of the bulls which occupy 

 these stations to the rear of the waterline and way back, the little cows have a rough- 

 and-tumble time of it when they begin to arrive in snnill numbers at hrst; for no 

 sooner is the pretty animal fairly established on the station of male number one, 

 who has welcomed her there, than he, perhaps, sees another one of her style in the 

 water from whence she has come, and, in obedience to his polygamous feeling, 

 devotes himself anew to coaxing the later arrival, by that same winning manner 

 so successful in the tirst case; then when bull number two, just back, observes bull 

 number one oft' guard, he reaches out with his long strong neck and picks up the 

 unhappy but passive cow by the scrutf of her's, just as a cat does a kitten, and 

 deposits her upon his seraglio ground; then bulls number three and four, and so on, 

 in the vicinity, seeing this high-handed operation, all assail one another, especially 

 number two, and for a moment have a tremendous fight — 



and so forth. 



If I were to enlarge upon this I should be led away from the line 

 which I have endeavoured so far to follow. One other cause, and not an 

 unimportant cause, Mr. Elliott mentions. But just see what is the 

 obvious result of this state of things which he describes — that unnatural 

 reduction of the young bull stock to one-seventh of its number in a nor- 

 mal condition — that unnatural reduction of the breeding bulls to some- 

 thitig like the same — between one-sixth and one-seventh of its normal 

 number in its natural condition. One expects to find the results which 

 are pointed out and which will be pointed out in detail, of the evidence 

 of useless bulls — bulls not having lost their sexual instinct, but, having 

 by driving and re driving lost their power of reproduction, liave become 

 incapaces res; and the increase which the evidence points to of the enor- 

 mous number of barren females, and so the birth-rate of the whole race 

 of seals is seriously injured. 



Tlie other cause to which I was about to refer is raiding, but upon 

 that I oidy wish to say a word or two. With all their anxiety and their 

 care to cherish the seals, certainly if I am to rely upon the statement 



