ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 59 



somnolent examples. Stealing softly up so closely that I conld lay 

 my hand npon them from the point where I was sitting, did I wish to, 

 and watching the sleeping seals, I have always found their sleep to 

 be of this nervous description. The respiration is short and rapid, 

 but with no breathing (unless the ear is brought very close) or snor- 

 ing sound. The quivering heaving of the flanks only indicates the 

 action of the lungs. I have frequently thought that I had succeeded 

 in finding a snoring seal, especially among the pups, but a close exam- 

 ination always gave some abnormal reason for it, generally a slight 

 distemper, never anything severer, however, than some trifle, by 

 which the nostrils were stopped up to a greater or less degree. 



The cows on the rookeries sleep a great deal, but the males have the 

 veriest cat naps that can be imagined. I never could time the slum- 

 ber of any old male on the breeding" grounds which lasted without 

 interruption longer than five minutes, day or night, while away from 

 these places, however, I have known them to lie sleeping in the man- 

 ner I have described, broken by these fitful, nervous, dreamy starts, 

 yet without opening the eyes, for an hour or so at a time. 



With the exception of the pups, the fur seal seems to have very 

 little rest, awake or sleeping. Perpetual motion is well nigh incar- 

 nate with its being. 



Fur-seal pups. — As I have said before, the females, soon after land- 

 ing, are delivered of their young. Immediately after the birth of the 

 pup (twins are rare, if ever) the little creature finds its voice, a weak, 

 husky blaat, and begins to paddle about, with its eyes wide open from 

 the start, in a confused sort of way for a few minntes, until the mother 

 turns round to notice her offspring and give it attention, and still later 

 to suckle it, and for this purpose she is supplied with four small 

 brown nipples, almost wholly concealed in the fur, and which are 

 placed about eight inches apart, lengthwise with the body, on the 

 abdomen, between the fore and hind flippers, with about 4 inches of 

 space between them transversely. These nipples are seldom visible, 

 and then faintly seen through the hair and fur. The milk is abun- 

 dan t, rich, and creamy. The pups nurse very heartily, almost gorging 

 themselves, so much so that they often have to yield up the excess of 

 what they have taken down, mewling and puking in the most orthodox 



manner. . . ^ 1 1 i 



The pup from birth, and for the next three months, is of a jet-black 

 color, hair and flippers, save a tiny white patch just back of each fore- 

 arm. It weighs first from 3 to 4 pounds, and is 12 to 14 inches long. 

 It does not seem to nurse more than once every two or three days, but 

 in this I am very likely mistaken, for they may have received atten- 

 tion from the mother in the night, or other times in the day when I 

 was unable to keep up my watch over the individuals which I had 

 marked for this supervision. 



The apathy with which the young are treated by the old on the 

 breeding grounds, especially by the mothers, was very strange to me, 

 and I was considerably surprised at it. I have never seen a seal 

 mother caress or fondle her offspring; and should it stray to a short 

 distance from the harem I could step to and pick it up, and even kill 

 it before the mother's eye, without causing her the slightest concei^, 

 as far as all outward signs and manifestation would indicate, ihe 

 same indifference is also exhibited by the male to all that may take 

 place of this character outside of the boundary of his seraglio, but 

 the moment the pups are inside the limits of his harem ground he is a 

 jealous and a fearless protector, vigilant and determined; but if the 



