

SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 165 



d which, with the exception of the Commander Islands of Russia, 

 can not be found anywhere else in the Northern Pacific or Bering Sea, 

 the reasons are plain why these islands have been selected by the fur 

 seals for their breeding resorts, since reproduction of their kind can 

 not be effected in the sea. 



My personal observation and study of seal life during the past 

 twenty years have led me to the certain conclusion that all the herd of 

 fur seals (Callorhinus n minus) which now make their annual migration 

 from and back to the Pribilof Islands (described hereafter) were all 

 born in June and July (annually) upon the Pribilof Islands, pass the 

 first four months of their existence on these islands, nursing at irregu- 

 lar intervals, learning to swim, and in shedding their fetal coats of 

 black hair for their seagoing jackets of hair and fur, leave in Novem- 

 ber, and annually return there to spend from four to six months of each, 

 year. In my published observations of 1872 and 1874 I thought it 

 possible there might be some commingling of the Pribilof seals with 

 the seal herd of the Russian Islands, but from my subsequent study of 

 their migrations and of the varietal differences in the herds in the two 

 localities, it is now very clear to me that they never mingle on the 

 islands, each herd keeping to its own side of the ocean and annually 

 resorting to its own fixed breeding grounds. 



ARRIVAL OF THE HULLS. 



Between the 1st and 5th of May a few of the adult males (bulls) may 

 be found upon the breeding grounds on the Pribilof Islands, but many 

 of them maybe seen swimming a short distance from the shore for sev- 

 eral days before landing. The method of landing is to come collectively 

 to these rookeries which they occupied the former season, but whether 

 a bull always takes up the same position or strives to do so I was unable 

 to gather sufficient data to determine, my opinion being to the contrary. 

 After landing, the bulls fight furiously for positions upon the rookeries, 

 the place of advantage being nearest the sea. 



FASTING OX THE ROOKERIES. 



All the bulls, from the time they have established themselves upon 

 the breeding grounds, do not leave them for a single instant, night or 

 day, nor do they until the end of the breeding season, which closes 

 some time between the 1st and 10th of August as a rule. The bulls 

 therefore for the space of three or four months abstain entirely from 

 food of any kind or water. When they do return to the water they are 

 greatly emaciated and lack life and activity. But the females, directly 

 to the contrary, feed at frequent intervals during the suckling period, 

 and at the end of the season are as sleek and fat as when they first 

 hauled out. 



ARRIVAL OF THE COWS. 



The cows, or females, begin to come up from the sea during the fore 

 part of June, and after continual battles between the rival bulls are 

 finally settled upon the rookeries. All the females of 2 years of age or 

 older u haul up" on the breeding rookeries, whether they are pregnant 

 or not, and during the period from June until the middle of August 

 they may be found coming and going almost continuously to and from 

 the rookeries, except a few barren cows, which I will mention here- 

 after. The pregnant cows land upon the islands from instinctive knowl- 

 edge that their period of gestation, which is about twelve months, 



