Fur-bearing Animals of the Pacific Slope. 185 



soon enables them to recuperate. The cows are only about a fifth 

 or a sixth of the size of the old bulls, weighing about 8olb. or golb., 

 their timid disposition contrasting as markedly with the aggressive 

 temperament of their lords as does their weight. The female, the 

 instant she drags herself on shore, is seized and appropriated by 

 the nearest bull, and if she is one of the first arrivals, a battle 

 royal between her captor and the next neighbour will at once 

 ensue to decide the mastership over her body, a struggle in which 

 her skin is sadly gashed by the jealous warriors, as they seize her 

 with their powerful canine teeth and tug her to and fro, her body 

 being often suspended in the air. This rough handling is all the 

 more unnatural, as the unfortunate cow is at that moment on the 

 eve of becoming a mother, the young being born on land almost 

 immediately after she drags herself on shore, the period of 

 gestation being practically a full twelve months, less a few days. 



The victorious old polygamists, heroes of countless fights, who 

 have managed to secure positions in the front row, surround them- 

 selves with wives galore, often as many as forty, instances of eighty 

 being not unknown, while their less fortunate fellows in the rear 

 ranks have to manage matrimony with six or seven better halves only. 

 Considering that this taking unto themselves wives means also the 

 immediate starting of a nursery of other folks' offspring, it does not 

 surprise one to hear that the stepfather entirely ignores the young 

 pups, who, by taking up valuable space, for every inch of which he 

 had to fight so hard, only incommode his ponderous majesty. 

 Hundreds of pups are, it is said, annually crushed to death in this 

 way by the bulls. On the breeding ground, which is exclusively 

 occupied by the full grown males and females and the pups of the 

 season, the ground is covered by a more or less uniformly 

 distributed dense mass of seals. Quite apart from the breeding 

 ground, but near it, is a general hauling-up ground, frequented by 

 the young males, or bachelors as they are called, and one year old 

 cows. These cover the ground in a much less even manner, and 

 are given to roaming, but woe to the young buck who dares to 

 stray in the wrong direction towards the married quarter, or as much 



