ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 55 



returning perhaps to-morrow, perhaps later, even not for several days 

 in fact, to again suckle and nourish it, having in the meantime sped 

 far off to distant fishing banks and satiated a hunger which so active 

 and highly organized an animal must experience when deprived of 

 sustenance for any length of time. 



As the females come up wet and dripping from the water, they are 

 at first a dull, dirty-gray color, dark on the back and upper parts, but 

 in a few hours the transformation in their appearance made by dry- 

 ing is wonderful. You would hardly believe that they could be the 

 same animals, for they now fairly glisten with a rich steel and maltese 

 graj^ luster on the back of the head, the neck, and along down the 

 spine, which blends into an almost snow-white over the chest and on 

 the abdomen. But this beautiful coloring in turn is again altered by 

 exposure to the same weather, for after a few daj^s it will gradually 

 change, so that by the lapse of two or three weeks it is a dull, rufous 

 ocher below, and a cinereous brown and gray mixed above. This 

 color they retain throughout the breeding season, up to the time of 

 shedding their coat in August. 



The head and eye of the female are exceedingly beautiful. The 

 expression is really attractive, gentle, and intelligent. The large, lus- 

 trous, blue-black eyes are humid and soft with the tenderest expres- 

 sion, while the small, well-formed head is poised as gracefully on her 

 neck as can be well imagined. She is the very picture of benignity 

 and satisfaction when she is perched up on some convenient rock and 

 has an opportunity to quietly fan herself, the eyes half closed and 

 the head thrown back on her gently-swelling shoulders. 



The females land on these islands not from the slightest desire to 

 see their uncouth lords and masters, but from an accurate and 

 instinctive appreciation of the time in which their period of gestation 

 ends. They are, in fact, driven up to the rookeries by this cause 

 alone. The young can not be brought forth in the water, and in all 

 cases marked by myself the pups were born soon after landing, some 

 in a few hours, but most usually a day or so elapses before delivery. 



Organization of the rookeries. -^They are noticed and received 

 by the males on the water-line stations with attention; they are alter- 

 nately coaxed and urged up on to tlie rocks, as far as these beach 

 masters can do so, by chuckling, whistling, and roaring, and then 

 they are immediately under the most jealous supervision; but, owing 

 to the covetous and ambitious nature of the bulls which occupy these 

 stations to the rear of the water line and waj' back, the little cows 

 have a rough-and-tumble time of it when they begin to arrive in small 

 numbers at first; for no sooner is the j)retty animal fairly established 

 on the station of male number one, who has AvelcoDied her there, then 

 he, perhaps, sees another one of her style in the water from whence 

 she has come, and, in obedience to his polygamous feeling, devotes 

 himself anew to coaxing the later arrival, by that same winning man- 

 ner so successful in the first case. Then when bull number two, just 

 bade, observes bull number one off guard, he reaches out with his 

 long strong neck and picks up the unhappy but passive cow by the 

 scruff of her's, just as a cat does a kitten, and deposits her upon his 

 seraglio ground. Then bulls number three and four, and so on, in the 

 vicinity, seeing this high-handed operation, all assail one another, 

 especially number two, and for a moment have a tremendous fight, 

 perhaps lasting half a minute or so, and during this commotion the 

 little cow is generally moved, or moves, farther back from the water, 

 two or three stations more, where, when all gets quiet again, she 



