ARRIVAL OF THE FUR SEALS. 



51 



begin to arrive as a class. About the middle of July the 2-year-old seals begin to 

 come in numbers, followed very soon by the yearlings, which swarm in large numbers 

 on the hauling grounds during the latter part of July. As the breeding season 

 advances the young half bulls, which throng the earlier drives, withdraw from the 

 hauling grounds to the water front of the rookeries or take up places in their rear. 



The arrival of the younger males in the latter part of July makes it advisable that 

 the driving for the quota should be completed as early in this month as possible. In 

 the early days of American control, when the seals were numerous, the quota was, as 

 a rule, filled before the 20th of July. 



THE ARRIVAL OF THE COWS. 



It is about the 10th of June that the adult cows begin to arrive.* Their appear- 

 ance, like that of the adult bulls, is very gradual. In 1897 a cow appeared on East 

 rookery on June 3; a second cow joined her on the 7th; no others had arrived on 

 the 10th. On St. Paul, the first cow arrived on the 10th; a second appeared on the 

 12th, and after this date a few could be found at almost every point where harems 

 were located the previous season. So quietly did the cows come in and take their 

 places that, though the rookeries of St. Paul were kept under the closest scrutiny, and 

 many new cows were found at each inspection, it was more than a week before the 

 landing of a single cow could be noted. 



THEIR INCOMING GRADUAL. 



This quiet and gradual incoming of the cows can best be illustrated by the record 

 of the daily count on Lukauin rookery : 



Lukanin rookery, 1897. 



Thus, though cows began to arrive on this rookery on the 12th of June, by the 

 27th of June there was on the half mile of its shore front no more than 257 cows. At 

 this date few, if any, had begun to go to sea. When we contrast this number with 

 the total of about 3,000 cows which visited the rookery during the season, we get some 

 idea of the gradual arrival of the breeding females. These figures must also correct 

 the long current notion that they come in a body or in a succession of great waves. 



* For details of the landing of the cows here described, reference should be made to the Daily 

 Journal in Pt. II, under date of June 12, 1897, and following. 



