ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 49 



It appears from my survey of these breeding grounds that a well- 

 understood principle exists among the able-bodied bulls, to wit: That 

 each one shall remain undisturbed on his ground, which is usually 

 about 6 to 8 feet squai-e, provided that at the start, and from that 

 time until the arrival of the females, he is strong enough to hold his 

 ground against all comers. Inasmuch as the crowding in of the fresh 

 arrivals often causes the removal of those which, though equally able- 

 bodied at first, have exhausted themselves by fighting earlier and 

 constantly; they are finally driven b}^ these fresher animals back 

 farther and higher up on the rookerj^ and sometimes off altogether. 



Many of those bulls exhibit wonderful strength and desperate cour- 

 age. I marked one veteran at Gorbatch, who was the first to take up 

 his position early in May, and that position, as usual, directly at the 

 water line. This male seal had fought at least forty or fiftj^ desper- 

 ate battles and fought off his assailants everj^ time, perhaps nearly 

 as many different seals which coveted his position, and when the 

 fighting season was over (after the cows are mostly all hauled up) I 

 saw him still there, covered with scars and frightfully gashed — raw, 

 festering, and bloody — and one eye gouged out, but lording it bravely 

 over his harem of fifteen or twenty females, who were all huddled 

 together on the same spot of his first location and around him. 



This fighting between the old and adult males — for none others 

 fight — is mostly, or rather entirely, done with the mouth. The oppo- 

 nents seize one another with their teeth, and then clenching their 

 jaws nothing but the sheer strength of the one and the other tugging 

 to escape can shake them loose, and that effort invariably leaves an 

 ugly wound, the sharp canines tearing out deep gutters in the skin and 

 furrows in the blubber or shredding the flij)pers into ribbon strips. 



They usually approach each other with comically averted heads, 

 just as though they were asliamed of the rumpus which they are deter- 

 mined to ijrecipitate. When they get near enough to reach one another 

 they enter upon the repetition of many feints or passes before either 

 one or the other takes the initiative bj^ gripping. The heads are 

 darted out and back as quick as a flash ; their hoarse roaring and shrill, 

 piping whistle never ceases, while their fat bodies writhe and swell 

 with exertion and i-age; furious lights gleam in their ej^es; their hair 

 flies in the air and their blood streams down ; all combined makes a 

 picture so fierce and so strange that from its unexpected position and 

 its novelty is j^erhaps one of the most extraordinary brutal contests 

 man can witness. 



In these battles of the seals the parties are always distinct — the one 

 is offensive, the other defensive. If the latter proves the weaker, he 

 withdraws from the position occupied, and is never followed by his 

 conqueror, who complacently throws up one of his hind flippers, fans 

 himself, as it were, to cool his fevered wrath aud blood from the heat 

 of the conflict, and sinks into comparative quiet, only uttering a 

 peculiar chuckle of satisfaction or contempt, with a sharp eye open for 

 the next covetous bull or "sea catch." ^ 



Attitudes and coloration of the fur seals. — The period occu- 

 pied by the males in taking and holding their positions on the rookery 

 offers a ver^^ favorable opportunity to study them in the thousand and 

 one different attitudes and postures assumed between the two extremes 

 of desperate conflict and deep sleep — sleep so profound that one can, 

 if he keeps to the leeward, approach close enough, stepping softly, to 



' " Sea catch," native name for the bulls on the rookeries, especially those which 

 are able to maintain their position. 

 H. Doc. 92, pt. 3 4 



