HABITS. 345 



Bryant, in 1870.* Mr. Elliott's account, published three or 

 four years later, is far more detailed, and respecting most points 

 maybe considered as fairly exhaustive of the subject, more than 

 thirty pages of his report being devoted exclusively to the 

 habits of the species. Captain Bryant has now kindly placed 

 at my disposal a communication embodying the results of his 

 eight years' observations on these animals, prepared by my 

 request expressly for the present work. While replete with 

 new information, it does not, to any great extent, duplicate 

 the account of the habits of the species published by Mr. Elliott, 

 being devoted mainly to a detailed history of the changes in 

 the relative preponderance of the different classes of Seals 

 resulting from the different systems of selecting the animals to 

 be killed for their furs, and to other features of the general 

 subject not hitherto fully presented. Its importance as a con- 

 tribution to the economic phases of the subject can scarcely be 

 overrated, while at the same time it forms a most valuable 

 contribution to the biology of the species. Believing it desira- 

 ble to present in the present connection a full and connected 

 history of the species, I offer no apology for tlie copious extracts 

 from Mr. Elliott's graphic account of the habits of the Fur Seal 

 which here follow : . 



"The fur seal {Callorliinus ursimis), which repairs to these 

 islands to breed in numbers that seem alrnost fabulous, is by 

 far the highest organized of all the Pinnipedia, and, indeed, for 

 that matter, when laud and water are fully taken into account, 

 there is no other animal superior to it from a purely physical 

 point of view ; and few creatures that can be said to exhibit a 

 higher order of instinct, approaching even intelligence, belong- 

 ing to the animal kingdom 



" Observe it as it comes leisurely swimming on toward the 

 land ; how high above the water it carries its head, and how 

 deliberately it surveys the beach, after having stepped w^ow it ; 

 it may be truly said to step with its fore flipi)ers, for they reg- 

 ularly alternate as it moves up, carrying the tiead well above 

 them, at least three feet from the ground, with a perfectly erect 

 neck. 



.... "We observe as the seal moves along that, though it 

 handles its fore limbs in a most creditable manner, it brings up 

 its rear in quite a different style ; for after every second step 

 ahead with the fore feet it arches its spine, and with it drags 



"" Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. ii, pp. 89-108. 



