28 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



E. THE SEAL-LIFE ON THE PEIBYLOV ISLANDS. 



8. THE HAIR-SEAL. 



Enumeration of the various species of seals. — The history of the far-seal, the one overshadowing and 

 superlatively interesting subject of this discussion, I shall present in all its multitudinous details, even at the risk 

 of being thought tedious. The aggregate of animal life shadowed every summer out upon the breeding grounds of 

 the seal-islands is so vast, so anomalous, so interesting, and so valuable, that it deserves the fullest mention; aud 

 even when I shall have done, it will be but feebly expressed. 



The seal-life on the Pribylov islands may be classified under tfce following heads, namely: (1) The fur-seal, 

 CallorMnus ursinus, the "kautickie" of the Russians; (2) the sea-lion, Eumetopias Stelleri, the "seevitchie" of the 

 Russians; (3) the hair-seal, Phoca vitulina, the " uearkpahsky " of the Russians; (4) the walrus, Odobwnus obesus, the 

 "morsjee" of the Russians. 



The hair-seal. — The above short schedule embraces the titles of all the pinnipeds found in, on, and around the 

 island group. Of this list the hair-seal is the animal which has done so much to found that erroneous, popular, and 

 scientific opinion as to what a fur-seal appears like. Phoca vitulina has, in this maimer, given to the people of the 

 world a false idea of its relatives. It is so commonly distributed all over the littoral salt waters of the earth, seen 

 in the harbors of nearly every marine port, or basking along the loneliest and least inhabited of desolate coasts far 

 to the north, that everybody has noticed it, if not in life, then in its stuffed skins at the museums, sometimes 

 very grotesquely stuffed. This copy, set everywhere before the eye of the naturalist, has rendered it so difficult 

 for him to correctly discriminate between the Phocidce and the Otariidce, that the synonymy of the Pinnipedia has 

 been expanded until it is replete with meaningless description and surmise. 



Although the hair-seal belongs to the great group of pinnipeds, yet it does not have even a generic affinity with 

 those seals with which it has been so persistently grouped, namely, the fur seal and tbe sea-lion. It no more 

 resembles them, than does the raccoon the black or grizzly bear. 



I shall not enter into a detailed description of this seal ; it is wholly superfluous, for excellent, and, I believe, 

 trustworthy accounts have been repeatedly published by writers* who have treated of the subject as it was spread 

 before their eyes on the coasts of Labrador, Newfoundland, and Greenland; to say nothing of the researches and 

 notes made by European scientists. It differs completely in shape and habit from its congeners on these islands. 

 Here, where I have studied its biology, it seldom comes up from the water more than a few rods at the farthest; 

 generally hauling and resting at the margin of the surf-wash. It takes up no position on land to hold and protect 

 a family or harem, preferring the detached water-worn rocks, especially those on the lonely north shore of St. Paul, 

 although I have seen it resting at "Gorbotck", near the sea-margin of the great seal-rookery of that name, on the 

 Reef point of St. Paul; its cylindrical, supine, gray and white body marked in strong contrast with the erect, black 

 aud ocher-colored forms of the CallorMnus, which swarmed around about it. On such small spots of rock, wet 

 and isolated from the mainland, and in secluded places on the north shore, the "Nearhpah" brings forth its young, 

 a single pup, perfectly white, covered with long woolly hair, and weighing from 3 to 7 pounds. This pup grows 

 rapidly, and alter the lapse of four or five months it tips the scales at 50 pounds; by that time it has shed its infant 

 coat and donned the adult soft steel-gray hair over the head, limbs, and abdomen, with the back most richly mottled 

 and barred lengthwise, by dark brown and brown-black streaks and blotches, suffused at their edges into the light 

 steel-gray ground of the body. When they appear in the spring following, this bright gray tone to their color has 

 ripened into a dingy ocher, and the mottling spread well over the head aud down on the upper side or back of the 

 flippers, but fades out as it progresses. It has no appreciable fur or under- wool. There is no noteworthy difference 

 as to color or size between the sexes. So far as I have observed, they are not polygamous. They are exceedingly 

 timid and wary at all times, and in this manner and method they are diametrically opposed, not by shape alone, but 

 by habit and disposition, to the fashion of the fur-seal in especial, and the sea-lion. Their skin is of little value, 

 comparatively, but their chief merit, according to the natives, is the relative greater juiciness and sweetness of 

 their flesh, over even the best steaks of sea-lion or fur-seal pup meat. 



One common point of agreement among all authors was, by my observations of fact, so strikingly refuted, that 

 I will here correct a prevalent error made by naturalists who, comparing the hair-seal with the fur-seal, state that 

 in consequence of the peculiar structure of their limbs, their progression on land is "mainly accomplished by a 

 wriggling, serpentine motion of the body, slightly assisted by the extremities". This is not so in any respect; for 

 whenever I have purposely surprised these animals, a tew rods from the beach-margin, they would awake and 

 excitedly scramble, or rather spasmodically exert themselves, to reach the water instantly, by striking out quickly 

 w^ith both fore-feet simultaneously, lifting in this way alone, aud dragging the whole body forward, without any 

 " wriggling motion" whatever to their back or posterior parts, moving from six inches to a foot in advance every 

 time their fore-feet were projected forward, and the body drawn along according to the violence of the effort and 

 the character of the ground ; the body of the seal then falls flat upon its stomach, and the fore-feet or flippers are 



*A very complete resume lias been given by Allen, Mini. North American Pinnipeds, 1880, 



