1899] THE HABITS OF THE NORTHERN FUR SEAL 25 

June 29. June 30. | July 1.| July 2.| July 3. 



P.M. P.M. A.M. P.M. P.M. A.M. A.M. P.M. 
2.30 6.15 10.40 3.15 6.30 10.35 | 11.55 | 12.10 









Harem I., number of cows. 63 64 56 63 64 90 69 89 
Harem II.,_,. op A 20 24 24 24 34 42 52 72 







Total number of cows in the 
two harems . 3 83 88 80 87 98 132 121 161 








Now, although these harems thus increased from day to day, so 
that in four days the number of cows was about doubled, and the cows, 
being in the proportion of (on the 3rd July) eighty to the bull, were 
completely out of control and free to move about as they wished, yet 
during all that time there were bulls hovering round the outskirts of 
the harems, some of which were masters of no cows, and none of 
which had succeeded in collecting a greater number than three each. 
Nothing could better illustrate the fact that it is the cows, and not the 
bulls, which have the real control of the harem-system. Over these 161 
cows the bulls, in spite of all their bluster, had the flimsiest of nominal 
dominion, and the cows were always able to, and frequently did, leave 
their harems to dally with cowless bulls on the outside. Yet, whether 
their number was 80 or 160, as long as they chose to sit massed 
together on the ground which had been appropriated by the two stronger 
bulls, no weaker. rivals could approach to within a distance of 10 yards 
from them. The master of the harem had no control over its occu- 
pants, but he was absolute lord of the ground on which they sat. 
An almost better illustration of this was to be seen at the South 
rookery, where, later in the season, there were often 200 cows on 
shore with two bulls. Yet (as on the 26th July, when there were 
287 cows on the beach) the division of the cows into harems was a 
very unequal one, the smaller bull being only able to keep a very few 
cows, while the larger one claimed the greater part of the rookery. 
But the cows could pass over to the smaller bull’s ground as often as 
they liked, and he probably was father to a great many more of 
the pups born in 1898 than those of the half-dozen cows over whom 
he claimed control. 
At the same rookery on the 28th July, when there were over 190 
cows on shore, the whole of this number was greedily claimed by the 
larger bull, while the smaller bull was forced to sit apart outside the 
patch of massed pups which lay just outside the rookery. True he 
sometimes threatened to make descents on his rival’s harem, but he had 
no cows that he could really call his own until they themselves took 
the initiative and went out to join him. 
Thus the inequality of the two harems at the N orth rookery kept 
increasing until there came a time when the newly-arriving cows began 
