THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 103 



naturally suggest a human face ; and it needs but a very little embellishment to trim it with long tresses, place mammae 

 on its bosom, and all the other peculiar attributes of the yellow-haired mermaid so celebrated in song and art. 



Fine opportunities foe OBSERVATION. — Therefore, what I wish to distinctly settle with regard to the 

 reproduction of the fur-seal, which I now have under consideration, is that mooted question as to the place, the 

 manner, and the time of the union of the two sexes necessary for the procreation of their kind. I have no personal 

 knowledge of the system of fertilization employed, with reference to it, by the Phocidw ; hence I shall not attempt 

 to describe it.* What I have heard from the natives would point clearly to the fact, that they know nothing 

 really worthy of scientific attention; but in regard to the fur-seal I have had unusual advantages, and an 

 extended experience, ranging over four consecutive breeding-seasons, in which thousands of these animals, all 

 perfectly in unison, have passed within the scope of my observation and record. 



Genitalia of the male and female fuk-seal. — Considering the male Callorhinus. When it is first born 

 the external organs of generation are not evidenced to the sight, and it requires a nice touch to find them under the 

 skin. It is not until this animal has rounded off the second year of its existence, that the testicles descend and 

 become outwardly exposed : first, faintly, but rapidly succeeding to the same prominence and same relative position 

 that they occupy in the example of the dog. When this creature attains three and four years of age, its testes 

 hang pendant in a somewhat flabby scrotum, which in the old male is as pendulous as that of the bull in the Bovidce; 

 the sack is smooth and shiny, entirely devoid of hair, and black, with a slightly wrinkled surface. The sheath of 

 the penis is so merged with the skin of the abdomen that it does not lie ribbed there and prominent as in the other 

 carnivora; but it is an erectile organ, with a bony skeleton, when fully developed, that measures from five to seven 

 inches in length. During excitement its appearance is closely, if not exactly, similar to that organ of the dog. The 

 females have their parts of generation precisely as they are described by Owen and Huxley — which descriptions are 

 based upon examples of the well-known Phocidw; their external organs are entirely concealed, by the fact that the 

 rectum terminates on the opposite side of the vulva; and a common, somewhat flaccid, sphincter closes both 

 apertures. In other words, the anal and genital openings of the female are united into a single one, through 

 which the regular secretions of the body pass, and the forces of reproduction are received and introduced. Thus, 

 while the female Phocidw correspond in this respect with the female Otariidw, yet the extraordinary development 

 of the male organs in the Otariidw are quite marked in their normal rising, when contrasted with their subsidence, 

 as exhibited by those peculiar to the Phocidw.f 



No evidence of rutting odors : Speedy birth of pups. — When the male fur-seals, or " seecatchie", 

 as the natives call them — a term implying strength and virility — arrive first upon the breeding-grounds, long 

 before the coming of the females, as described in a preceding chapter of this monograph, they give no evidence 

 of being in rut; nor do they emit any odor during the rest of the season which at all resembles the "rutting 

 odor" ascribed to many animals. I call attention to this because a common blunder has been made, and likely will 

 be made, whereby the smell upon the rocks, so tar-reaching and so offensive, is called the "rutting funk". It is, 

 as I have also stated, due to other causes which are conspicuous and which have been specified heretofore. 

 When the females came to land upon the breeding-grounds, I noticed that, with the exception of the virgin 

 cows, they were heavy with maternity; that the period of their gestation must soon culminate by the birth of their 

 offspring, which usually took place within a couple of hours after they reached the shore, or within as many 

 days at the most. Frequently I have observed the mothers land, and ere they were dry the young would 

 be expelled; and the thought rose then to my mind "how wonderfully well-timed is this return of those gravid 

 cows" — for, in spite of tempests and currents, and many of them quite two and three thousand miles from their 

 winter feeding-places, yet they reach this land-speck in Bering sea just in season for instant delivery after arrival ! t 



*The inconsequential numbers of tbe hair-seal around and on the Pribylov islands, seem to be characteristic of all Alaskan waters 

 and tbe northwest coast; also, the Phocidw are equally scant on the Asiatic littoral margins. Only the following four species are known 

 to exist throughout the entire extent of that vast marine area, viz : 



PllOCA VTTULrXA — Everywhere, between Bering straits and California. 



PHOCA fcetida — Plover bay, Norton's sound, Kuskokvim mouth, and Bristol bay, of Bering sea; Cape Seartze Kammin, Arctic ocean 

 to Point Barrow, and also over the entire extent of the polar coast of Siberia. 



Erignathus harbatus — Kamtchatkan coast; Norton's sound. Kuskokvim mouth, and Bristol bay, of Bering sea. 



HisTiuopnocA fasciata — Yukon mouth, and coast south to Bristol bay, of Bering sea, and drifting ice therein. 



Then, in addition to this, Mr. Ivan Petrov, the Alaskan special agent of the Tenth Census, United states, reports the presence of a laud- 

 locked seal m tbe fresh waters of Iliamna lake, and also in lake Walker. It may be as distinct from any of tbe Pkocidce above enumerated 

 as is the Baikal or the Caspian seals ; and, as such, I suggest that it shall receive the name of Phoca petrovi, when it is eventually secured, 

 and if identified as new to our lists. — Preliminary Report of Progress, Census of Alaska: Ivan Petrov, Washington, December, 1S80. : p. 4,">. 



In this connection it is a somewhat curious fact, that the description which Aristotle [300 B. C] gives of the hair-seal {Monaehus 

 albiventer, very likely) is, in most respects, correct; while Button, the celebrated French zoologist, as late- as I'-si, has not, despite his 

 vast advantages, been nearly as accurate in his treatment of the pinnipeds. That this old Grecian philosopher, three hundred years before 

 the Christian era, should have doue better in this respect than that world-wide distinguished academician did more than two thousand 

 years afterward, affords an entertaining suggestion as to the alleged degeneracy of the present age. especially so since the monument 

 erected over Button's remains bears an inscription which declares that be possessed "a mind equal to the majesty of nature". (!) 



t See Owen's Anatomy of Vertebrates, vol. iii, p. t>0;i, London, 1868. The Phocidce are the subject of this eminent author's examination 

 and report. 



ill' there is any one faculty better developed than tbe others in tbe brain of the intelligent Callorhinvs, it must be it> "bump" of 

 locality. Tin unerring directness with which it pilots its annual course bael< through thousands of miles of watery wast' to these 



