202 BERING ISLAND. [chap. 



edge of the holluscMcki ground, and the various gambols and 

 attitudes exhibited by them were most amusing. Some engaged 

 in mimic warfare, and rolled over and over like young kittens ; 

 others sat fanning themselves slowly with their long hind flippers. 

 Whether this is really done for the sake of keeping themselves 

 cool I do not know, but that they are extremely sensitive to heat 

 is certain, for sunny weather invariably sends them into the sea 

 in large numbers. Eain appears equally to be disliked by them, 

 but a cold, foggy day, we were told, is their beau ideal of weather. 

 ]\Ir. Elliott doubts if the animals will vacate their present breeding- 

 places, since no other shores in Bering's Sea are properly adapted 

 for their requirements as regards ground and climate. Certainly if 

 their idea of enjoyment consist in lying on a wet rock in a fog, 

 exposed to an icy breeze, their present choice of locality seems 

 admirably suited to them. Yet in spite of these insanitary rash- 

 nesses they are said to live to the age of twenty-four years or 

 more. What better argument, I wonder, could a lady possibly 

 advance for the absolute necessity of a sealskin cloak ! 



We were too late in the season to see the rookeries in their 

 fully organised condition, but a great number of old bulls remained, 

 and were conspicuous by their large size and by the elevated positions 

 they had assumed. They were most likely those that had returned 

 from a holiday of a month or so at sea after the squabbles and 

 anxieties of their married life. They are the first to take their 

 departure and do not usually return, but the cows and holluscliieki 

 remain much later, and leave about the same tune — in the earlier 

 part of November, or even in October. The agent of the Alaska 

 Company told us that, as a rule, the shores were practically 

 deserted by the 20th of November, but that a few stragglers 

 were occasionally to be found even later. They are usually the 

 more w^eakly pups, who perhaps are unwilling to trust them- 

 selves to their ocean life until they have gained a sufficiency of 

 strength. 



There are certain disadvantages attaching to bachelorhood even 



