THE ALAPKAN FUR-SEAL AND PELAGIC SEALING. 407 



young fur-seal is exclusively a land animal for the first six or eiglit weeks 

 of its life aufl does not voluntarily visit the water till about the end of this 

 period. If jjlaced in the water during- the first few weeks of its exist- 

 ence it will quickly drown if left to itself. When first born it is encum- 

 bered for a greater or less length of time with the placental envelopes, 

 which alone would insure its speedy death by drowning should parturi- 

 tion occur in the water. The young fiir-seal avoids and is afraid of 

 the sea until, at the age of six to eight weeks, it is conducted to the 

 water and taught to swim by its mother. Of this fact tlie evidence is 

 unanimous and overwhelming. The claim sometimes made that par- 

 turition may occur in the open sea or on beds of floating kelp rests on 

 no sound evidence, and is doubtless due to misapprehension and care- 

 less oliservation. 



5. The breeding female not only resorts to the land to give birth to 

 her young, but remains there until she has been again ,, , , 



*-,' T 1 , 1 1 1 • 1 T •! ^J_^ Mode of propacation. 



impregnated by the mah^, which occurs ordinarily with- 

 in a few days after parturition. Copulation in the water is exceptional, 

 if ever occurring, and is probably impossible, owing to the immense 

 disparity in size between the sexes, and the protracted and violent 

 nature of the act. The presumption that it may occur in the water is 

 entirely opposed to the well-known sexual economy of the species. The 

 males are not only polygamous, but they take their positions on the 

 rookeries long before the females arrive at the islands, fighting not 

 only for the i^ossession of their chosen stations, but for the females as 

 they land, which they gather about them in as large numbers as pos- 

 sible, jealously guarding them not only from their rivals, but to pre- 

 vent tlieir escaping fmm their resi^ective harems. If i)aTturition and 

 copulation ccmhl occur in the sea the exercise of any such tyrannical 

 jurisdiction of the males over the females would be iinj)ossible and the 

 seraglio system so well established not only in the case of this species, 

 but in all its allies, would not be the one striking feature in the sexual 

 economy of the whole eared-seal family, wherever its representatives 

 are found. 



6. Only males of G years old and upwards have the courage and phys- 

 ical endurance to render them successful contestants for positions on 

 the breeding rookeries, and only a portion of these are able to establish 

 harems and serve the females. It is a well established fact that a bull 

 of this class is able to serve from forty to sixty females, the number he 

 actually serves varying more or less according to his success in gather- 

 ing the females to form his harem. As the number of males and females 

 annually born is about equal, there is thus an immense superfluity of 

 male life, so far as the unlimited j^erpetuation of the species is concerned. 



7. The history of the Pribilof far-seal herd shows that for a period 

 of about 15 years it was possible to kill for commercial ^. .^ .,., „ , . 



^/^■|\/^w>rv 1 1 11 -ii i- Isize of Pnbilof herd. 



purposes 100,000 young male seals annually with not 

 only no recognizable decrease or deterioration of the herd, but appar-- 

 ently a decided increase up to about the year 1880. The following three 

 or four years is commonly recognized as a period of stagnation, during 

 which time there was no very material increase or decrease. Since 1881, 

 however, there has been a rapid decline not only in the number of kill- 

 able males, but in the size of the herd as a whole. 



8. This remarkable and unexpected decline originated through no 

 change in the management of the far-seal herd at the 



Pribilof Islands. Dnring the last two or three years, lagicliaL^'g!^ *" ^^' 



however, and in consequence of the decline from the 



tormer status of the herd, it has been necessary to lower the age of seals 



