MANNER OP TRAVELING. 187 



" sleepers " when they are asleep on the smooth water and can be ap- 

 proached to within close range. 



In those days there were a great many seals in 

 the water, and they would go in bands of 15 or 20 Bowa-chup, p. 376. 

 together. 



When the seals are asleep on the water they lie on their backs with 

 the fore flippers sticking up and held close to the 



head. They always lay with the head toward the William Brennan, p. 359. 

 wind, the flippers being spread out and acting as 



sails to keep them steady in the water, making it hard for a boat to 

 approach them when they are awake, because the noise of the oars is 

 carried to them. If a boat comes upon them from the windward they 

 will take the scent and dive, and if from leeward they readily see it, 

 and do the same. 



I saw but very few seals between here and San Diego, but north from 

 here to Victoria I have formerly seen large herds 

 of them sleeping and playing on the water dur- Leander Cox, p. 416 

 ing the winter and spring months. In May 



and June they congregate about the passes to enter the Bering Sea, 

 and I have seen them in great numbers at this time. 



I have noticed that the seals gather in large herds at the passes 

 about the time they are ready to go into the Ber- 

 ing Sea, and that they are more scattered when m. c. Erskine,p. 422. 

 seen along the coast. 



As the bulls are scattered about and go out to sea a great distance, 

 it does not pay to go after them, while the females 

 go in big bands and do not travel offshore as far George Fogel, p. 424. 

 as the bulls. 



We first fell in with fur-seals moving north early in the month of 

 February, about 50 miles off the coast, in the re- 

 gion of Cape Mendocino, California. They were Norman Hodgson, p. 366. 

 very scarce then, but as we traveled up the coast 



we found them more numerous. They were most plentiful off the 

 mouth of the Columbia Kiver in the early part of the month of March. 

 The migratory movement of the fur-seal is from the southward to the 

 northward and westward, following the general trend of the coast of 

 the mainland. The main herd is most compactly massed between 40 

 and GO miles offshore, but some of the seals scatter and straggle over 

 an area a long distance on each side of that. The males are generally 

 in advance of the females on the passage north. Females are found in 

 the greatest numbers off Baranolf Island about the middle of the month 

 of May. We followed the main herd up the coast as far as the south- 

 western end of Kadiak Island, where we usually left them on account 

 of their diminished numbers. 



The seals which I have observed on their way to the Pribilof Islands 

 do not move in large schools; they straggle along 

 afewat a time in a sort of a stream, and are often Ghas. J. Hague, p. 208. 

 seen sleeping in the water and playing. 



