ORGANIZATION OF HAREMS. 135 



The bulls choose such ground as they mean to 1 #>Id through the sum- 

 mer, fight savagely, and the strongest wins. Each 



has his own family, and should a stranger ap- William Brennan, p. 359. 

 proach there is war. On the rookeries one may 



see all classes of seals apart from each other, the bulls and breeding- 

 cows in one place and the young in another. 



Upon reaching the islands in early June I found that the bulls, in 

 accordance with their habit, had not only pre- 

 empted their claims upon the breeding grounds J. Stanley Brown, p. 13. 

 but were well established in their possession. 



Being polygamous each bull seeks to gather around himself as many 

 cows as possible to form what has appropriately been called his "har- 

 em." Here and there at wide intervals a few cows were already to 

 be seen beside them but at no time during the season were the rook- 

 eries free from the contention of the males tbat sought by coaxing or 

 theft to procure females with which to increase their harems, and from 

 the time I landed until the close of July no master of a harem aban- 

 doned his position to procure either food or water. These bulls during 

 the breeding season were the embodiment of ferocity and at no time 

 did I see one of them that would not instantly and fiercely resist any 

 encroachment upon his territory whether it were made by his neighbor 

 or by man. At no time would a bull fail to scramble across the rocks 

 or course rapidly around his harem to coerce a rebellious or deserting 

 consort. The creature that can exist without nourishment for eighty 

 or ninety days while subject to the greatest physical exertion and strain 

 must possess a vitality unsurpassed by any other member of the ani- 

 mal kingdom and must bequeath to its offspring even in their imma- 

 turity an unusual capacity for endurance. 



# # * # # # # 



The number of females which a bull is able to gather around him to 

 form his harem, depending as it does in some measure upon topographic 

 conditions, may be represented by the extremes of one and seventy-five. 

 The average number of last year was about twenty or twenty-five. Un- 

 usually large harems were infrecpient. 



When the male seal returns after his sixth or seventh migration he 

 goes to the breeding rookeries, and, if he is able, 

 becomes master of a harem with the title of " see- chas. Bryant,p, 6. 

 catch." He arrives now at the islands during the 

 month of May, and alter repeated battles obtains a place upon the breed 



ing grounds. 



######### 



Here he gathers about him as many cows as he is able to place with- 

 in the radius of the area controlled by him; the average seen at one 

 time while I was on the islands was from 15 to 20 to a bull; but as the 

 cows were constantly going to and coming from the water it is im- 

 possible to calculate accurately the number to a harem. Probably not 

 all the cows belonging to a bull were on shore at any one time. 



When I first went to these regions a " pod" or family consisted of a 



"wig" and 12 or 15 "clap-matches," but this year 



everything was disorganized and not morefthan 2 .J" 8 :,,]-. B ™ in 9 ton > P- 



■>> = «=> , . . 55*5 {Antarctic). 



or 3 seals were together; sometimes there being 



1 "clap-match "and 2 "wigs." There were in 1891 about as many "wigs" 



