THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 37 



cannot at any one time during the season be seen here on this rear liue. Only a portion of their number are in 

 sight ; the others are either loafing at sea, adjacent, or are hauled out in morose squads between the rookeries on 

 the beaches. 



Courage of the fur-seals. — The courage with which the fur-seal holds his position as the head and 

 guardian of a family, is of the highest order. I have repeatedly tried to drive them from their harem posts, when 

 they were fairly established on their stations, and have always failed, with few exceptions. I might use every stone 

 at my command, making all the noise I could. Finally, to put their Courage to the fullest test, I have walked up to 

 within twenty feet of an old veteran, toward the extreme end of Tolstoi, who had only four cows in charge, and 

 commenced with my double-barreled fowling-piece to pepper him all over with fine mustard-seed shot, being kind 

 enough, in spite of my zeal, uot to put out his eyes. His bearing, in spite of the noise, smell of powder, and 

 painful irritation which the fine shot must have produced, did not change in the least from the usual attitude of 

 determined, plucky defense, which nearly all of the bulls assumed when attacked with showers of stones and noise; 

 he would dart out right ami left with his long neck and catch the timid cows, that furtively attempted to run after 

 each report of my gun, fling and drag them back to their places under his head ; and then, stretching up to his full 

 height look me directly and defiantly in the face, roaring and chuckling most vehemently. The cows, however, 

 soon got away from him ; they could not stand my racket in spite of their dread of him ; but he still stood his 

 ground, making little charges on me of ten or fifteen feet, in a succession of gallops or lunges, spitting furiously, and 

 then comically retreating to the old position, with an indescribable leer and swagger, back of which he would not 

 go, fully resolved to hold his own or die in the attempt. 



This courage is all the more noteworthy from the fact that, in regard to man, it is invariably of a defensive 

 character. The seal is always on the defensive: he never retreats, and he will not attack. If he makes you return 

 when yon attack him, he never follows you much farther than the boundary of his station, and then no aggravation 

 will compel him to take the offensive, so far as I have been able to observe. I was very much impressed by this 

 trait. 



Behavior of the female seals on the rookeries. — The cows, during the whole season, do great credit 

 to their amiable expression, by their manner and behavior on the rookery; they never fight or quarrel one with 

 another, and never or seldom utter a cry of pain or rage when they are roughly handled by the bulls, which 

 frequently get a cow between them and actually tear the skin from her back with their teeth, cutting deep gashes 

 in it as they snatch her from mouth to mouth. If sand does not get into these wounds it is surprising how rapidly 

 they heal ; and, from the fact that I uever could see scars on them anywhere except the fresh ones of this year, 

 they must heal effectually and exhibit no trace the next season. 



The cows, like the bulls, vary much in weight, but the extraordinary disparity in the size of the sexes, adult, 

 is exceedingly striking. Two females taken from the rookery nearest to St. Paul village, right under the bluffs, 

 and almost beneath the eaves of the natives' houses, called "Nah Speel", after they had brought forth their young, 

 were weighed by myself, and their respective returns on the scales were 5G and 100 pounds each; the former being 

 about three or four years old, and the latter over six — perhaps ten ; both were fat, or rather in good condition — as 

 good as they ever are. Thus the female is just about one-sixth the size of the male.* Among the sea-lions the 

 proportion is just one-half the bulk of the male,t while the hair-seals, as I have before stated, are not distinguishable 

 in this respect, as far as I could observe, but my notice was limited to a few specimens only. 



Attitudes of fur-seals on land. — It is quite beyond my power, indeed entirely out of the question, to 

 give a fair idea of the thousand and one positions in which the seals compose themselves and rest when on land. 

 They may be said to assume every possible attitude which a flexible body can be put into, no matter how characteristic 

 or seemingly forced or constrained. Their joints seem to be double-hinged; in fact, all ball and socket union of 

 the bones. One favorite position, especially with the females, is to perch upon a point or edge-top of some rock, 

 and throw their heads back upon their shoulders, with the nose held directly up and aloft; and then closing their 

 eyes, to take short naps without changing their attitude, now and then softly lifting one or the other of their long, 

 slender hind-flippers, which they slowly wave with that peculiar fanning motion to which I have alluded heretofore. 

 Another attitude, and one of the most common, is to curl themselves up just as a dog does on a hearth-rug, 

 bringing the tail and nose close together. They also stretch out, laying the head close to the body, and sleep an 

 hour or two without rising, holding one of the hind-flippers up all the time, now and then gently moving it, the 

 eyes being tightly closed. 



I ought, perhaps, to define the anomalous tail of the fur-seal here. It is just about as important as the 

 caudal appendage to a bear, even less significant ; it is the very emphasis of abbreviation. In the old males it is 

 positively only four or five iuches in length, while among the females only two and a half to three inches, wholly 

 inconspicuous, and not even recognized by the casual observer. 



Sleeping seals. — I come now to speak of another feature which interested me nearly, if not quite, as much 

 as any other characteristic of this creature; and that is their fashion of slumber. The sleep of the fur-seal, seen on 

 laud, from the old male down to the youugest, is always accompanied by an involuntary, uervous, muscular twitching 



* Adult male and female. t Adult male and female : Enmetopiaa SliUiri. 



