ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
Notes on the Habits of the Northern Fur Seal. 
By G. E. H. Barrett-HAMILTON. 
Introduction. 
THERE is probably no species of wild mammal to whose life-history so 
much attention has been paid as the Northern Fur Seal (Otaria ursina). 
For about a century and a half a source of wealth to large and 
powerful companies, it was after the first discovery of its breeding 
haunts by the ill-fated Vitus Bering in 1742, the object of a slaughter 
as indiscriminate as it was inimical to the permanent interests of 
those who took part in it. In later years, however, when a diminished 
herd plainly foreshadowed the fatal effect of this foolish destruction of 
valuable animals, every effort has been made to preserve the seals, 
and they have been for some time the objects of the most careful study 
on the part of the governments who own their breeding haunts, a 
study which culminated in the appointment of the International Com- 
missions of 1891-93 and 1896-97. 
Volumes upon volumes have been devoted to the Northern Fur 
Seal; of these, very many are blue-books, or government publications, 
a large portion of which are of too patriotic a nature to be safely relied 
upon by scientific men. Some other accounts of the seals, which 
cannot be included in the above category, have been tinged with a 
depth of poetical imagination obviously intended for popular rather 
than scientific reading, so that the Commission of 1896-97 found much 
to correct or supplement in our knowledge of even the most simple 
features of the life-history of the animal. Bearing this in mind, I 
think I need no excuse for putting together a brief account of the 
observations which I made during my visits to the rookeries. In doing 
so I shall entirely exclude all matter relating to the commercial or 
diplomatic questions at issue, and I hope my notes may be taken as a 
perfectly unbiassed account of what came under my own notice. 
Before I go further, it may be well to state that I assume that all 
naturalists are acquainted with the general facts of the life-history of the 
2—nNAT. sc.—voL. xv. No. 89. EY 
