THE SEALS. 217 



THE SEALS. 



CONTKOL AND DOMESTICATION. 

 Page 147 of The Case. 



The work of herding and managing seals does not differ materially 

 from that pursued with the stock-farm animals 

 with which we are most familiar. The herdsman '' ' C ' Alhs > 1K 98 - 

 lias chiefly to learn their quick motions and pro- 

 pensity to bite in order to handle them at will. 



I tried to thoroughly train the young' seals, hoping to make valuable 

 pets of them, and succeeded as far as the taming went, but could not 

 get them to thrive on cow's milk or the condensed milk of commerce, 

 administered from a nursing bottle. They became, however, very tame, 

 stopped trying to bite unless they were made angry by rough usage, 

 and followed me about like pups of the canine species. When they are 

 older and before they leave the island in the fall they may still be 

 handled with impunity, and their habits are such of massing and herd- 

 ing by themselves apart from the older seals that all could be easily 

 "rounded up "from the beaches in favorable weather, and "corralled "' 

 and marked. It would be perfectly feasible to drive them into and 

 keep them in such a corral or inclosure as would be constructed for 

 calves or lambs, surrounded by a fence 3 or 4 feet high, and while there to 

 catch each one and brand him. This has already been successfully 

 done on a small scale by naturalists who wanted to identify certain 

 ones for a future purpose. 



This is not mere theory with me, for I was bred to the management 

 and handling of young domestic animals, and have handled the young 

 s< a Is, and have seen them handled by the natives in the same way. 



They grow very tame when reared near where people are passing 

 and repassing, and none of them are as wild or 

 si iuw as much fear as sheep ordinarily do when Jno. Armstrong, p. 2. 

 approached by man. 



Robben Island is very small, being 1,960 feet long by 175 feet wide, 

 and in places 46 feet high. Of necessity the 

 quarters of the seal hunters and guards, as well Jno. o. Blair, p, 194. 

 as the killing grounds, are very near the rook- 

 eries, being not more than 75 feet distant from them, yet the seals ap- 

 pear to take no alarm from the close proximity of the men, paying very 

 little attention to persons passing and repassing a short distance from 

 them. If none of them were killed, or if the killing were properly re- 

 stricted to the males, I think they would increase very rapidly and be 

 as closely subject to control as the cattle upon the great open pastures 

 of the Rocky Mountain regions. There would be little trouble in 

 catching all the young seals and branding or marking them. 



As proving that the seals return to the islands, I put a canvas col- 

 lar upon a pup in 1880, and he came back to the same rookery in the 

 following year still wearing the collar. 



If they are managed right they may be driven like sheep along the 

 beaches. They do not run fast on shore, unless 

 alarmed, when they give a man a good race to Wm. Brennan, p. 359. 

 catch them. 



