ALASKA FUR SEAL. 181 



heard to be understood ; and this spittmg, just described. 

 The cows have but one note — a hollow, prolonged, 

 bla-a-ting call, addressed only to their pups ; on all 

 other occasions they are usually silent. It is something 

 like the cry of a calf or sheep. They also make a 

 spitting noise, and snort when suddenly disturbed. 

 The pups ' bla-at ' also, with little or no variation, the 

 sound being somewhat weaker and hoarser than that of 

 their mothers for the first two or three weeks after 

 birth ; they, too, spit and cough when aroused suddenly 

 from a nap or driven into a corner. A number of pups, 

 crying at a short distance off, bring to mind very 

 strongly the idea of a flock of sheep ' baa-aa-ing.' 



" Indeed, so similar is the sound, that a number of 

 sheep brought up from San Francisco to Saint George's 

 Island during the summer of 1873, were instantly 

 attracted to the rookeries, running in among the Seals, 

 and requiring to be driven away to a good feeding- 

 ground by a small boy detailed for the purpose. 



" The sound arising from these great breeding-grounds 

 of the Fur Seal, where thousands upon thousands of 

 angry, vigilant bulls are roaring, chuckling, piping, and 

 multitudes of Seal mothers are calling in hollow, 

 bla-a-ting tones to their young, which in turn respond 

 incessantly, is simply indescribable. It is, at a slight 

 distance, softened into a deep booming, as of a cataract, 

 and can be heard a long way off at sea, under favourable 

 circumstances, as far as five or six miles, and frequently 

 warns vessels that may be approaching the Islands in 

 thick, foggy weather of the positive, though unseen, 

 proximity of land. Night and day throughout the 

 season, the din of the rookeries is steady and constant. 



" The Seals have to suffer great inconvenience from a 

 comparatively low degree of heat ; for with a tempera- 



