72 



ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



sole propulsive power of the fur seal iu the water, as they are its main 

 fulcrum and lever combined for i)rogression on land. I regret that 

 the shy nature of the hair seal never allowed me to study its swim- 

 ming motions, but it seems to be a general point of agreement among 

 authorities on the Phocidce, that all motion in Avater by them arises 

 from that power which they exert and apply with the hind feet. So 

 far as my observations on the hair seal go, I am inclined to agree with 

 this opinion. 



All their movements in water, vvhether they are traveling to some 

 objective point or are in sport, are quick and joyous; and nothing is 

 more suggestive of intense satisfaction and pure physical comfort 

 than is that spectacle which we can see every August a short distance 

 out at sea from any rookery, where thousand's of old males and females 

 are idly rolling over on the billows side by side, rubbing and scratch- 

 ing with their fore and hind flippers, which are here and there stuck 

 up out of the water by their owners, like the lateen sails of the Medi- 

 terranean feluccas, or, when the hind flippers are presented, like a 

 eat o' nine tails. They sleep in the water a great deal, too, more 

 than is generally supposed, showing that they do not come on land to 

 rest — very clearly not. 



Classing the " holluschickie " by age.— When the "hollus- 

 chickie" are up on land they can be readil}- separated into their sev- 

 eral classes as to age by the color of their coats and size, when noted, 

 namely, the yearlings, the two, three, four, and flve year old males. 

 When the yearlings, or the first class, haul out, they are dressed just 

 as they were after they shed their pup coats and took on the second 

 covering, during tlie previous year in September and October; and 

 now, as they come out in the spring and summer, one year old, the 

 males and females can not be distinguished apart, either by color or 

 size, shape or action ; the yearlings of both sexes have the same steel- 

 gray backs and white stomachs, and are alike in behavior and weight. 



Next year these yearling females, which are now trooping out with 

 the youthful males on the hauling grounds, will repair to the rookeries, 

 while their male companions will be obliged to come again to this 

 same spot. 



Shedding the hair: Stagey seals.— About the 15th and 20th of 

 every August they have become perceptibly "stagey," or in other 

 Avords, their hair is well under way in shedding. All classes, with 

 the exception of the pups, go through this process at this time every 

 year. The process requires about six weeks between the first drop- 

 ping or falling out of the old overhair and its full substitution by the 

 new. This takes place, as a rule, between August 1 and Septem- 

 ber 28. 



The fur is shed, but it is so shed that the ability of the seal to take 

 to the water and stay there, and not be physically chilled or disturbed 

 during the process of molting, is never impaired. The whole surface 

 of these extensive breeding grounds, traversed over by us after the 

 seals had gone, was literally matted with the shed hair and fur. 

 This under-fur or pelage is, however, so fine and delicate, and so 

 much "concealed and shaded by the coarser over-hair, that a careless 

 eye or a superficial observer might be pardoned in failing to notice 

 the fact of its dropping and renewal. 



The j^earling cows retain the colors of the old coat in the new, when 

 they shed it for the first time, and from that time on, year after year, 

 as they live and grow old. The young three-year-olds and the older 

 cows look exactly alike, as far as color goes, when they haul up at 

 first and dry out on the rookeries, every June and July," 



