66 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



which arises from them when they are driven, only it is a little stronger. 

 Both the young and old fur seals have this same breath taint at all 

 seasons of the year. 



Review of statements concerning life in the rookeries. — 

 To recapitulate and sum up the system and regular method of life and 

 reproduction on these rookeries of St. Paul and St. George, as the seals 

 seem to have arranged it, I shall say that — 



First. The earliest bulls land in a negligent, indolent way, at the 

 Oldening of the season, soon after the rocks at the water's edge are free 

 from ice, frozen snow, etc. This is, as a.rule, about the 1st to the 5th 

 of every May. They land from the beginning to the end of the season 

 in perfect confidence and without fear; they are very fat, and will 

 weigh at an average 500 pounds each; some stay at the water's edge, 

 some go to the tier back of them again, and so on until the whole 

 rookery is mapped out by them, weeks in advance of the arrival of the 

 first female. 



Second. That by the 10th or 12th of June all the male stations on 

 the rookeries have been mapped out and fought for and held in wait- 

 ing by the " see-catchie." These males are, as a rule, bulls rarely ever 

 under 6 j^ears of age; most of them are over that age, being some- 

 times three and, occasionally, doubtless, four times as old. 



Third. That the cows make their first appearance, as a class, on or 

 after the 12th or 15th of June, in very small numbers; but rapidly 

 after the 23d and 25th of this month, every year, they begin to flock 

 up in such numbers as to fill the harems very perceptibly; and by the 

 8th or 10th of July they have all come, as a rule, a few stragglers 

 excepted. The average weight of the females now will not be much 

 more than 80 to 90 pounds each. 



Fourth. That the breeding season is at its height from the 10th to 

 the 15th of July every j'ear, and that it subsides entirely at the end of 

 this month and early in August; also, that its method and system are 

 confined entirely to the land, never effected in the sea. 



Fifth. That the females bear their first young when they are three 

 years old, and that the period of gestation is nearly twelve months, 

 lacking a few days only of that lapse of time. 



Sixth. That the females bear a single pup each, and that this is born 

 soon after landing. No exception to this rule has ever been witnessed 

 or recorded. 



Seventh. That the "see-catchie" which have held the harems from 

 the beginning to the end of the season, leave for the water in a desul- 

 torj' and straggling manner at its close, greatlj^ emaciated, and do not 

 return, if they do at all, until six or seven weeks have elapsed, when 

 the regular systematic distribution of the families over the rookeries 

 is at an end for this season. A general medley of young males now 

 are free, which come out of the water, and wander over all these rook- 

 eries, together with manj^ old males, which have not been on seraglio 

 duty, and great numbers of the females. An immense majority over 

 all others present are pups, since only about 25 per cent of the mother 

 seals are out of the w^ater now at an}' one time. 



Eighth. That the rookeries lose their compactness and definite bound- 

 aries of true breeding limit and expansion b}' the 25th to the 28th of 

 July every year; then, after this date, the pups begin to haul back, 

 and to the right and left, in small squads at first, but as the season 

 goes on, by the 18th of August, they depart without reference to their 

 mothers; and when thus scattered, the males, females, and young 

 swarm over more than three and four times the area occupied by them 

 when breeding and born on the rookeries. The system of family 



