109 



were most compact and uniform in their distribution in 18G2-'74, 1 find 

 the animals as tliey lay to day, scattered over twice and thrice as much 

 ground as a rule, as the same number would occui)y in 1872 — scattered 

 because the virile bulls are so few in number and the service which 

 they render so delayed or impotent. In other words the cows are rest- 

 less; not being served when in heat, they seek other bulls by hauling 

 out in green jagged points of massing (as is shown by the chart), up 

 from their landing belts. 



This unnatural action of the cows, or ratlier unwonted movement, 

 has caused the pups already to form small pods everywhere, even where 

 the cows are most abundant, which shadows to me the truth of the 

 fact that in five days or a week from date, the scattering completely of 

 the rookery organization will be thoroughly done; it did not take place 

 until the 2bth-25th July, 1872. 



In 1872, these cows were promptly met with the service which they 

 craved on the rookery ground. The scattering of these old bulls to day 

 over so large an area, is due to extreme feebleness and combined in 

 many cases to a recollection of no distant day when they had previ- 

 ously hauled thus far out on this very ground surrounded by bareness, 

 though all is vacant and semi grass grown under and around them now. 



The fur-seals, so well provided against cold, are yet so sensitive to 

 its effects that they go south at the approach of winter and seek their 

 food in the great river of warm waters that comes from the tropical 

 coast of Asia and pours its flood across the Pacific Ocean. It bears 

 enormous treasures of fish food, and swarms with schools of herring, 

 salmon, and squid. The migratory fishes, that naturally feed against 

 the current, pursue the track of this warm river in the ocean and 

 ascend it. This leads them to tlie northern coast of the United States, 

 and thence around the great curve which this river has formed on the 

 coast, past British Columbia, to the south of the Alaskan peninsula. 

 Tlie fur-seals, finding warmth and food in this ocean current, enter it 

 wlien they quit the breeding islands and Bering Sea, in Novend)er, and 

 must stay in the broad expanse of warm waters, where it ceases to 

 flow, during a considerable part of the winter. There they remain in 

 search of the herring and other vast schools of migratory fishes that 

 are surface swimmers and feeders, and they follow them on their way 

 to the spawning grounds, as the seals return to their summer abode on 

 the islands to the north of the Aleutian i^eninsula, where the Arctic 

 current and the Asiatic river meet. 



Around the great curve I have mentioned, this ocean current sets in 

 close to the shore, flowing southward, and its warm waters make the 

 winter climate in those high latitudes and altitudes nearly as soft and 

 genial as that of Ireland, and for the same reason. The seals are thus 

 drawn into numerous large assemblages or schools near to the western 



