HABITS. 365 



few thousand pups and some old bulls, the only ones driven uj) 

 to the killing-grounds for their skins, for reasons which are ex- 

 cellent, and which shall be given further on. 



"Since the 'holluschukie' are not permitted by their own 

 kind to land on the rookeries and rest there, they have the 

 choice of two methods of landing and locating. 



" One of these opportunities, and least used, is to pass up 

 from and down to the water, through a rookery on a pathway 

 left by common consent between the harems. On these lines 

 of passage they are unmolested by the old and jealous bulls, 

 who guard the seraglios on either side as they go and come ; 

 generally there is a continual file of them on the way, travel- 

 ing up or down. 



"As the two and three year old holluschukie come u]) in small 

 squads with the first bulls in the spring, or a few days later, 

 these common highways between the rear of the rookery-ground 

 and the sea get well defined and traveled over before the arrival 

 of the cows ; for just as the bulls crowd up for their stations, so 

 do the bachelors, young and old, increase. These roadways 

 may be termed the lines of least resistance in a big rookery ; 

 they are not constant ; they are splendidly shown on the large 

 rookeries of Saint Paul's, one of them (Tolstoi) exhibiting this 

 feature finely, for the hauling-ground lies up back of the rook- 

 ery, on a flat and rolling summit, 100 to 120 feet above the sea- 

 level. The young males and yearlings of both sexes come 

 through the rookery on these narrow pathways, and, before 

 reaching the resting-ground above, are obliged to climb up an 

 almost abrupt bluff, by following and struggling in the little 

 water-runs and washes which are worn in its face. As this 

 is a large hauling-ground, on which fifteen or twenty thousand 

 commonly lie every day during the season, the sight always, at 

 aU times, to be seen, in the way of seal climbing and crawling, 

 was exceedingly novel and interesting. They climb over and 

 up to places here where a clumsy man might at first sight 

 say he would be unable to ascend. 



"The other method by which the 'holluschukie' enjoy them- 

 selves on land is the one most followed and favored. They, in 

 this case, repair to the beaches unoccupied between the rook- 

 eries, and there extend themselves out all the way back from 

 the water as far, in some cases, as a quarter of a mile, and even 

 farther. I have had under my eye, in one straightforward 

 sweep, from Zapad-nie to Tolstoi, (three miles,) a million and a 



