CONDITION IN 1869. 387 



missed impregnation earlier. The withdrawal of the beach- 

 masters leaves the breeding-grounds in possession of the younger 

 males, with the pups gathered in masses on the upper side. 



"As already stated, the females now mostly spend their time 

 in the water, returning on shore only to suckle their young as 

 they require food. On landing, the mother calls out to her 

 young with a plaintive bleat like that of a sheep calling to her 

 lamb. As she approaches the mass several of the young ones 

 answer and start to meet her, responding to her call as a young 

 lamb answers its parent. As she meets them she looks at them, 

 touches them with her nose as if smelling them, and passes 

 hurriedly on until she meets her own, which she at once recog- 

 nizes. After caressing him she lies down and allows him to 

 suck, and often falls into a sound sleep very quickly after. 



"By the 20th of August the young, then forty or forty-five 

 days old, move down to the edge of the water, where they begin 

 to learn to swim. The greater part of the young seem to resort 

 to the water from a natural instinct, but some require to be urged 

 in by the older ones, and I have in a few instances observed the 

 parents take them by the neck and carry them into the water, 

 and when they have become tired return with them to the shore 

 again. When once in the .water the young Seals soon appear 

 to delight in it, spending most of their time there in play, tum- 

 bling over each other like shoals of fish. It seems strange that 

 an animal like this, born to live in the water for the greater por- 

 tion of its life, should be at first helpless in what seems to be 

 its natural element ; yet these young Seals, if put into it before 

 they are five or six weeks old, will drown as quickly as a young 

 chicken. They are somewhat slow, too, in learning to swim, 

 using at first only the fore flippers, carrying the hind ones 

 rigidly extended and partially above water. As soon as they 

 are well able to swim (usually about the last week of August) 

 they move from the breeding-places on the exposed points 

 and headlands to the coves and bays, where they are sheltered 

 from the heavy surf, and where there are low sand-beaches. 

 Here they occupy a belt of shore near the water entirely sepa- 

 rated from their parents, where they play until weary, and then 

 haul up on to the beach to rest and sleep, often covering an area 

 of several acres in extent in one compact body. The mothers 

 lie apart (when not in the water) at a convenient distance, 

 for the young to find them to nurse. Thus they remain until 

 October, when the oldest and strongest begin to leave for the 



