54 , ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



marked exception of finding in every one a snarl or cluster of worms,^ 

 from the size of a walnut to a bunch as large as a man's fist. Fasting 

 apparentl.y lias no effect upon the worms, for on the rare occasion, 

 and perhaps the last one that will ever occur, of killing three or four 

 hundred old bulls late in the fall to supply the natives with canoe 

 skins, I was present, and again examined their paunches, finding the 

 same ascaridcc within. Thej^ were lively in these empty stomachs, 

 and their presence, I think, gives some reason for the habit which the 

 old bulls have (the others do not) of swallowing small water-worn 

 bowlders, the stones in some of the stomachs weighing half a pound 

 apiece, in others much smaller. In one paunch I found over 5 pounds, 

 in the aggregate, of large pebbles, which, in grinding against one 

 another, I believe, must comfort the seal by aiding to destroy, in a 

 great measure, those intestinal pests. 



The sea lion is also troubled in the same way by a similar species of 

 worm, and I preserved the stomach of one of these animals in which 

 there was more than 10 pounds of stones, some of them alone very 

 great in size. Of this latter animal, I suppose it could swallow bowl- 

 ders that weigh 2 and 3 i^ounds each. I can ascribe no other cause 

 for this habit among those animals than that given, as they are the 

 highest type of the carnivora, eating fish as a regular means of sub- 

 sistence, varying the monotony of this diet with occasional juicy 

 fronds of seaweed or kelp, and i3erliaps a crab or such once in a while, 

 provided it is small and tender or soft-shelled. I know that the sailors 

 say that the CaUorhinus swallows these stones to "ballast" himself; 

 in other words, to enable him to dive deeply and quickly; but I noticed 

 that the females and the "holluschickie" dive quicker and swim 

 better than the old fellows above specified, and they do so without any 

 ballast. They also have less muscular power, only a tithe of that 

 which the "see-catch" possesses. No, the ballast theory is not ten- 

 able. (See note, 39, J.) 



Arrival of the cow seals at the rookeries. — 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 bj^ a period of universal, spasmodic, desperate fighting 

 among themselves. Though thej^ 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 fighting wliicli takes place at this date is 

 the bloodiest and most vindictive known to the seal. I presume that 

 the heaviest percentage of mutilation and death among the old males 

 from these brawls occur in this week of the earliest appearance of the 

 females. 



A strong contrast now between the males and females looms up, both 

 in size and shape, which is heightened by the air of exceeding peace and 

 dovelike amiability which the latter class exhibit, in contradistinction 

 to the ferocity and saturnine behavior of the former. 



Description of the cow seal. — The cows are from 4 to 4:^ feet 

 in length from head to tail, and much more shapelj' in their propor- 

 tions than the bulls. There is no wrapping around their necks and 

 shoulders of unsightly masses of blubber; their lithe, elastic forms, 

 from the first to the last of the season, are never altered. This they 

 are, however, enabled to keep, because in the provision of seal econ- 

 omy they sustain no protracted fasting period, for soon after the birth 

 of their young they leave it on the ground and go to the sea for food, 



' Nematoda. 



