COITION. 139 



Pelagic coition I believe to be impossible. The process upon laud 

 by reason of the formation of the genital organs 

 is that of a mammal; is violent in character, and j. Stanley Brown, p. 14. 

 consumes from five to eight minutes. The relative 



sizes of the male and female are so disproportionate that coitus in the 

 water would inevitably submerge the female and require that she re- 

 main under water longer than would be possible to such an amphibian. 

 I have sat upon the cliffs for hours and watched seals beneath me at 

 play in the clear water. It is true that many of their antics might be 

 taken for copulation by a careless observer, and this may have given 

 rise to the theory of pelagic coition. I have never seen a case of the 

 many observed which upon the facts could properly be so construed. 



In watching the seals while swimming about the islands I have seen 

 cases where they appeared to be copulating in 

 the water, but I am certain, even if this was the chas. Bryant, p. 6. 

 case, that the propagation of the species is not as 



a rule effected in this way, the natural and usual manner of coition 

 being upon land. 



I am also convinced that copulation takes place on land before they 

 migrate; the period of gestation being about Jas , Wt Badington 

 eleven months. 595 ( Antarctic). 



The female this season [second] is probably fertilized. As a general 

 rule the impregnation is by the bull, to whose 

 harem she belongs, and not by the young males, as Saml. Falconer, p. 165. 

 has sometimes been stated. These young males 



always pursue a female when she is allowed to leave the harem and go 

 in the water, but she refuses them. I am positive from my observa- 

 tions that copulation in the water could not be effectual, and would be 

 a most unnatural occurrence. 



I do not believe it possible for fur seals to breed or copulate in the 

 water at sea, and never saw nor heard of the ac- , r 

 tion taking place on a patch of floating kelp. Norman H ° d <J s °»>P- 367. 



It has been said that copulation also takes place in the water between 

 these young females and the so called "nonbreed- 

 ing males," but with the closest scrutiny of the h. h. Mclntyre,p.42. 

 animals when both sexes were swimming and play- 

 ing together under conditions the most favorable in which they are 

 ever found for observation, I have been unable to verify the truth of 

 this assertion. 



I desire also to express my belief concerning the seal life that the 

 act of copulation can not be successfully per- 

 formed in the water. Those who have witnessed j. m. Morton, p. 67. 

 its accomplishment on the rookeries must coincide 



with such opinion. A firm foundation for the support of the animals, 

 which the ground supplies, and the water does not, is indispensable to 

 oppose the pushing motion and forceful action of the posterior parts of 

 the male which he exerts during coition. The closest observation 

 which I have been able to give to the movements and habits of the 

 seals in the water has furnished no evidence to controvert the above 

 opinion. 



