102 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



H. THE REPRODUCTION OF THE FUR-SEAL, SEA-LION, AND WALRUS. 



19. THE REPRODUCTION OP THE FUR-SEAL.* 



Object op this discussion. — By treating this subject at length, my object is to fix attention upon several 

 points connected with the reproduction of the fur-seal which have vital importance to its relation with, and 

 residence upon, the breeding-grounds of these islands under discussion. In the first place, naturalists generally 

 have taken notice of the procreative apparatus exhibited by the Phoeidce; and, while they have spoken at length 

 in anatomical detail and discussion of the male organs of the Otariidce, yet, they exhibit a strange neglect or 

 oversight with respect to those of the female. The singular cloacal arrangement of the female organs of generation 

 in the Phoeidce has excited comment and description from the earliest times. 



Oversight of other writers. — The modification of the reproductive apparatus peculiar to the male Otariidce, 

 in contradistinction with those organs possessed by the male Phoeidce, has been noticed to some extent by several 

 authorities t prior to the date of this publication ; but, while calling attention to those marked changes in the 

 morphology of the male organs of the Otariidce, they are silent in regard to the fact that, though the Phoeidce are 

 very distinct, by the armature of the males, from the Otariidce, yet the cloacal arrangement of the females in both 

 genera is identical. This is in itself, as I view it, quite as remarkable with regard to the females as it is noteworthy 

 in respect to the males. Surely the wonderful modification of the physical structure of the male fur-seal from that 

 of his kindred, the hair-seal, is very great; and we are not surprised to find that his generative organs are 

 pronounced, in common with all the others, distinct. So the females differ, physically, in every respect, to as great 

 a degree, with the solitary exception of the intra-uterine life, and the cloacal form of the external genitalia. 



Necessity of understanding this subject. — This subject of the method of reproduction, as carried out 

 by the fur-seals on the breeding-grounds of the Pribylov islands, should he understood distinctly and authoritatively, 

 before the truth or falsity of certain hypotheses, which depend upon it, can be intelligently discussed. The general 

 impression and commonly-received opinion in the popular, as well as the scientific world, is that the amphibian 

 life of the ocean breeds in the water thereof; or, in other words, that the fertilization of the seal-life takes place 

 by coition therein, and that the young may be born in this watery element, safely nurtured and cared for by their 

 mothers.:): No end of fanciful rumor and romance has been published touching this point. We are told that 

 some man of great credibility, has seen seals in the water, with then - new-born clasped on their bosoms, rising 

 in the waves to look at their disturbers, and then sinking, to carry away their young to safety and quiet. By 

 this fanciful description, undoubtedly, the mermaid owes its origin in our recent mythology ; for the hair-seal, 

 in especial, has a bland, round, full physiognomy; the large circular eyes are placed more in front of the skull than 

 in the crania of any other genera of its kind. Such a head popping up suddenly in front of the mariner might 



*\Vhen they the approaching time perceive, 

 They flee the deep, and watery pastures leave; 

 On the dry ground, far from the swelling tide, 

 Bring forth their young, and on the shores abide 

 Till twice six times they see the Eastern gleams 

 Brighten the hills, and tremble on the streams ; 

 The thirteenth morn, soon as the early dawn 

 Hangs out its crimson folds or spreads its lawn, 

 No more the fields and lofty coverts please, 

 Each hugs her own, and hastes to rolling seas. 



— Old Roman Poem: Hair-seals of the Mediterranean. 

 t Allen : North American Pinnipeds, 1880. Murie: Trans. Zool. Soc., 1869-72. 



J Reasonably enough, the closet naturalist, no matter how able, will be deceived now and then in this manner by untrustworthy 

 statements made by those who are supposed to know by personal observation of what they affirm. 



As an apt illustration of the confusion which the best of closet of naturalists are thrown into by irrepressible information touching 

 this very matter, I may cite the case of Hamilton, who, in 1839, while writing of the fur-seal of Cook and Forster, discovered 

 particularly by them on South Georgia, in 1771, declares it to be no fur-seal at all! He feels warranted in doing so, because one Captain 

 Weddell says so. This authority was a hardy sailor who made sealing a specialty in the Antarctic during 1823-'26. Hamilton, after 

 specifying the wide range of this Arctocephalus, "at Dusky bay, New Zealand, in New Georgia, Staten Land, Juan Fernandez, and the 

 Gallapagos", goes on to say — 



"It will be observed that several of these authorities, particularly Dampier and Cook, speak of the fineness of the fur of this seal. 

 It is probably these statements which have led the able author of the article Phoque, in the Diet. Classique d'Bist. Katurelle, to state that 

 this seal is the fur-seal of commerce. His words are: 'L'otarii do Forster est le Phoque a fourrures des pecheurs europeens.' But this, 

 we suspect, is a mistake. No one will doubt that Captain "Weddell was familiar with the fur-seal. He was also familiar with the ursine- 

 seal, both as encountered in its haunts and as described by naturalists ; and yet, when speaking of the ursine-seal (so denominated by 

 him), he never once hints that its fur has any peculiar value, but the contrary." [Amphibious Carnivora: Ediuburg, 1839, p. 205.] 



Thus Hamilton quotes this old mariner, Weddell, throughout his whole memoir, with the utmost trust ; and in the same manner others 

 have been cited. They are worthless, unless taken " cum grano salis". The sum and substance of it is this: when most of the sea-faring 

 sealers and whalers are in the field, they are blind to everything except the mere capture of their quarry. When they return, they are 

 importuned for those details which, in fact, fchej have never thought of while away. 



