92 Seals 



bared teeth, and glaring eyes, ever spoiling for a fight, 

 and as often as not covered with torn and gory wounds 

 from head to foot. These do not seem to cause him 

 any inconvenience, or allay his fierce desire for battle. 



Not that he is guilty of fighting for fighting's sake 

 alone — I would not do him that injustice. First of 

 all, upon arriving at the breeding-place to which the 

 colony of Seals he belongs to resort each year, each 

 male selects a spot where he and the mate or mates 

 who will presently arrive (for the Seal is not mono- 

 gamous) may lodge. It should be as near the sea as 

 possible, and also near a beach, but its location is 

 preferred among the rocks or rough ground. Having 

 selected a spot about ten feet square, the thing is to 

 retain it against the ever-arriving Seals from their 

 oceanic wanderings, each eager to eject some already 

 established landholder. So it is fight and watch day 

 and night to hold their own. 



By-and-by the female Seals arrive, each a mother 

 elect, and then the scene simply baffles description. 

 It says volumes for the vitality of the poor females, that 

 they not only survive the terrible treatment they re- 

 ceive, but actually seem little the worse for it. As 

 each one reaches the rocks she is pounced upon by a 

 roaring frenzied mob of males, seemingly bent upon 

 tearing her limb from limb. Not only is she bitten and 

 torn most shamefully, but she is banged upon the rocks 

 as if she were a mass of india-rubber rather than a 

 living thing. Finally, she becomes the prize of the 

 most vigorous, who seizes her with his teeth by her 

 neck, drags her off to his reservation, and dumps her 

 down there. Then having fought to obtain her, he 

 must now fight to keep her, and in between-while§ do 

 a little skirmishing, if haply he may acquire an extra 

 wife or so. 



