ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 67 



arrangement and uniform comijaetness of the breeding classes breaks 

 up at this date. 



Nintli. That by tlie 8th or 10th of August the pups born nearest the 

 water first begin to learn to swim; and that by the loth or 20th of Sep- 

 tember they are all familiar, more or less, with the exercise. 



Tenth. That by the middle of September the rookeries are entirely 

 broken up. Confused, straggling bands of females ai-e seen among 

 bachelors, pups, and small squads of old males, crossing and recross- 

 ing the ground in an aimless, listless manner. The season now is 

 over. 



Eleventh. That many of the seals do not leave these grounds of St. 

 Paul and St. George before the end of December, and some remain 

 even as late as the 12tli of January, but that by the end of October 

 and the beginning of November every j' ear all the fur seals of mature 

 age — 5 and fi years and upward — have left the islands. The younger 

 males go with the others. Many of the pups still range about the 

 islands, but are not hauled to anj^ great extent on the beaches or the 

 flats. They seem to i^refer the rocky shore margin, and to lie as high 

 up as they can get on such bluffy rookeries as Tolstoi and the Reef. 

 By the end of this month — November — they are, as a rule, all gone. 



Such is the sum and the substance of my observations which relate 

 to the breeding grounds alone on St. Paul and St. George. It is the 

 result of summering and wintering on them, and these definite state- 

 ments I make with that confidence which one always feels when he 

 speaks of that which has entered into his mind by repeated observa- 

 tion and has been firmly grounded b^" careful deductions therefrom. 



THE " HOLLUSCHICKIE " OR "BACHELOR" SEALS — A DESCRIPTION. 



The hauling grounds and their occupants. — I now call the 

 attention of the reader to another very remarkable feature in the 

 economy of the seal life on these islands. The great herds of 

 "holluschickie,"^ numbering from one-third to one-half, i)erhaps, of 

 the whole aggregate of nearly 5,000,000 seals known to the Pribilof 

 grouj), are never allowed by the ' ' see-catchie " under the pain of fright- 

 ful mutilation or death, to i^ut their flip]3ers on or near the rookeries. 



By reference to my map it will be observed that I have located a 

 large extent of ground — markedly so on St. Paul — as that occupied by 

 the seals' "hauling grounds;" this area, in fact, represents those por- 

 tions of the island ui:)on which the " holluschickie " roam in their 

 heavy squadrons, wearing off and polishing the surface of the soil, 

 stripping ever}^ foot, which is indicated on the chart as such, of its 

 vegetation and mosses, leaving the margin as sharply defined on the 

 bluffy uplands and sandy flats as it is on the map itself. 



The reason that so much more land is covered by the ' ' holluschickie " 

 than by the breeding seals — ten times as much at least — is due to the 

 fact that though not as numerous, perhaps, as the breeding seals, they 

 are tied down to nothing, so to speak — are wholly irresponsible, and 

 roam hither and thither as caprice and the weather may dictate. 

 Thus they wear off and rub down a much larger area than the rookery 

 seals occupy; wandering aimlessly, and going back, in some instances, 

 notably at English Bay, from one-half to a whole mile inland, not trav- 

 eling in desultory files along winding, straggling paths, but sweeping 



'The Russian term " liolluschickle " or '-bachelors" is very appropriate, and is 

 usually employed. 



