388 CALLORHINUS URSINUS NORTHERN FUR SEAL. 



"winter, and others soon follow. By the middle of December all^ 

 both young and old, are gone, and are seen no more until the next 

 season, when they return to repeat the cycle above described. 



" Having now carried the breeding Seals through their annual 

 round, "we will return to the young males, or holluschucke that 

 were left in June spread out in the rear of the breeding Seals. 

 This class is made up of a very small number of yearlings (the. 

 greater part of these coming later, as before stated), and those 

 of all ages between two and six years old, with a few superannu- 

 ated males, which, being unable to hold their place on the rook- 

 eries, retire here with the younger Seals for quiet and rest. All 

 of the Seals between four and six years of age pass a large por- 

 tion of their time during the day in the water, returning to the 

 shore at night. While in the water they swarm along the shore 

 of the breeding-places, watching for opportunities of mating; 

 with any females that may chance to be in the water. To this 

 class I shall have to return later, when I come to refer to the 

 changes in the movements of the Seals growing out of the effect- 

 of the present mode of taking them for their skins. 



" It is from the holluschucke class that the animals are selected 

 and killed for their skins. As the process of driving has been 

 so often described in detail, I shall refer to it only so far as is 

 necessary to explain its effects under the present management. 

 In the foregoing description I have followed the observations 

 made during the first year of my residence on the island (1869)^ 

 as the normal conditions then existed in a greater degree than, 

 afterwards, when other influences came into oijeration. 



"Eecent changes in the Habits and relative Num- 

 bers OF the different Classes of Seals. In order to be 

 able to understand fidly what the changes are that have occurred^ 

 it will be necessary to go back to a date still earlier. Accord- 

 ing to information derived from the natives, and hence some- 

 what meagre and vague, it appears that in the year 1842 large 

 quantities of ice and snow accumulated on the island and re- 

 mained on the breeding-places when the Seals arrived. They 

 landed and brought forth their young* on it, but a large portion 

 of them were lost by the breaking up of the ice, the young be- 

 ing drowned, while thousands of females were crushed by the 

 sliding of the masses of snow from the higher grounds. The 

 number of Seals became thus so reduced that the natives for 

 two vears were not allowed to kill them for food. From that 



