66 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



usually remains in peace. Her last lord and master, not having the 

 exposure to such diverting temptation as her first, gives her such care 

 that she net only is unable to leave, did she wish, but no other bull 

 can seize upon her. This is only a faint (and I fully appreciate it), 

 wholly inadequate description of the hurlj^-burly and the method by 

 which the rookeries are filled up, from first to last, when the females 

 arrive. That is onlj^ one instance of the manj^ trials and tribulations 

 which both parties on the rookery subject themselves to before the 

 harems are filled. 



Far back, 15 or 20 " see-catchie " stations deep from the water line, 

 and sometimes more, but generally not over an average of 10 or 15, 

 the cows crowd in at the close of the season for arriving, which is by 

 the lOtli or 14th of July. Then they are able to go about pretty much 

 as they please, for the bulls have become so gj'eatly enfeebled by this 

 constant fasting, fighting, and excitement during the past two months 

 that they are quite content now even with only one or two partners, if 

 they should have no more. 



The cows seem to haul up in compact bodies from the water, filling 

 in the whole ground to the rear of the rookeries, never scattering about 

 over the surface of this area; they have mapped out from the first 

 their chosen resting places, and they will not lie quietly in any posi- 

 tion outside of the great mass of their kind. This is due to their 

 intensely gregarious nature, and admirably adapted for their protec- 

 tion. And here I should call attention to the fact that thej^ select this 

 rookery ground with all the skill of civil engineers. It is preferred 

 with special reference to the drainage, for it must lie so that the 

 produce of the constantly dissolving fogs and rain clouds shall not lie 

 upon them, having a great aversion to and a firm determination to 

 rest nowhere on water-puddled ground. This is admirablj'^ exhibited 

 and will be iTuderstood by a studj^ of my sketch-maps which follow, 

 illustrative of these rookeries and the area and position of the seals 

 upon them. Every one of those breeding grounds slo})es up gently 

 from the sea, and on no one of them is there anything like a muddy 

 flat. 



I found it an exceedingly difficult matter to satisfy myself as to a 

 fair general average number of cows to each bull on therookerj'; but 

 after protracted study I think it will be nearly correct when I assign 

 to each male a general ratio of from 15 to 20 females at the stations 

 nearest the water; and for those back in order from that line to the 

 rear from 5 to 12; but there are so many exceptional cases, so many 

 instances where 45 and 50 females are all under the charge of one 

 male; and then, again, where there are 2 or 3 females only, that this 

 question was and is not entirely satisfactory in its settlement to my 

 mind. 



Near Ketavie Point, and just above it to the north, is an odd wash- 

 out of the basalt by the surf, which has chiseled, as it were, from the 

 foundation of the island, a lava table with a single roadway or land 

 passage to it. Upon the summit of this footstool I counted 45 cows, 

 all under the charge of one old veteran. He had them penned up on 

 this table rock by taking his stand at the gate, as it were, through 

 which they passed up and passed down — a Turkish brute typified. 



Unattached males. — At the rear of all these rookeries there is 

 invariably a large number of able-bodied males Avhich have come late, 

 but wait patiently, yet in vain, for families, most of them having had 

 to fight as desperately for the i^rivilege of being there as any of their 

 more fortunately located neighbors, who are nearer the water and in 



