ALASKA INDUSTEIES. ' 71 



the fur seal sports safely in, among, and nndcr booming breakers dur- 

 ing the prevalence of the numerous heavy gales at the islands has 

 afforded me many consecutive hours of spellbound attention to them, 

 absorbed in watching their adroit evolutions within the foaming surf 

 that seemingly every moment would, in its fierce convulsions, dash 

 these hardy swimmers, stunned and lifeless, against the ironbound 

 foundations of the shore, which alone checked the furious rush of the 

 waves. Not at all. Through the wildest and most ungovernable mood 

 of the roaring tempest and storm-tossed waters attending its transit 

 I never failed, on creeping out and peering over the bluffs in such 

 weather, to see squads of these perfect watermen — the most expert of 

 all amphibians — gamboling in the seething, creamy wake of mighty 

 rollers, which constantly broke in thunder tones over their alert, dodg- 

 ing heads. The swift-succeeding seas seemed every instant to poiso 

 the seals at the very verge of death; yet the GaUorhinus, exulting 

 in his skill and strength, bade defiance to their wrath and continued 

 his diversions. 



Swimming feats of the "bachelors." — The " holluschickie " are 

 the champion swimmers of all the seal tribe; at least when in the 

 water around the islands they do nearly every fancy tumble and turn 

 that can be executed. The grave old males and their matronly com- 

 panions seldom indulge in any extravagant display, as do these young- 

 sters, jumping out of the water like so many dolphins describing 

 beautiful elliptic curves sheer above its surface, rising 3 and even 4 

 feet from the sea, with the back slightly arched, the fore flippers 

 folded tightly against the sides, and the hinder ones extended and 

 pressed together straight out behind, plumping in head first, to reap- 

 pear in the same manner, after an interval of a few seconds of sub- 

 marine swimming, like the flight of a bird, on their course. Sea lions 

 and hair seals never .jump in this manner. (See note, 39, O.) 



All classes will invariably make these dolphin jumps when they 

 are surjDrised or are driven into the water, curiously turning their 

 heads while sailing in the air, between the " rises " and "plumj)s," to 

 take a look at the cause of their disturbance. They all swim rapidlj^, 

 with the exception of the pups, and vaay be said to dart under the 

 water with the velocity of a bird on the wing. As they swim they are 

 invariably submerged, running along horizontally about 2 or 3 feet 

 below the surface, guiding their course with the hind flippers as by 

 an oar, and i^ropelling themselves solely by the fore feet, rising to 

 breathe at intervals which are either very frequent or else so wide 

 apart that it is impossible to see the speeding animal when he rises a 

 second time. 



How long they can remain underwater without taking a fresh breath 

 is a problem which I had not the heart to solve by instituting a series 

 of experiments at the island ; but I am inclined to think that, if the 

 truth were known in regard to their ability of going without rising to 

 breathe, it would be considered astounding. On this point, however, 

 I have no data worth discussing, but will say that, in all their swim- 

 ming which I have had a chance to study, as they passed under the 

 water, mirrored to my eyes from the bluff above bj^ the whitish-colored 

 rocks below the rookery waters at Great Eastern rookery, I have not 

 been able to satisfy myself how they used their long, flexible hind 

 feet other than as steering media. If these posterior members have 

 any perceptible motion it is so rapid that my eye is not quick enough 

 to catch it; but the fore flippers, however, can be ]nost distinctly seen, 

 as they work in feathering forward and sweeping flatly back, opposed 

 to the water, with great rapidity and energy. They are evidently the 



