THE NORTHERN FUR SEAL 201 



(Plate XVIII.). At the Pribyloff Islands and other such 

 lonely spots in the North Pacific the male seals begin 

 to arrive early in May. Just as in a gold rush the miner 

 stakes out his location, so the seal allots to himself on the 

 rocky shore a space of about ten feet square as tne site for 

 his housekeeping. Normally the seal is a soft-eyed, amiable 

 creature, except in his attitude towards the fish upon which 

 he feeds ; but now he becomes a fierce beast with bristling 

 moustache, glaring eyes, and teeth ever bared towards any 

 of his companions. No sooner has he entered into posses- 

 sion of his freehold site than he becomes engaged in a series 

 of terrible combats with new-comers to retain it. 



About the beginning of June the female seals arrive, and 

 then the scene simply defies description. Each bull is bent 

 upon stocking his allotment with partners, and as a female 

 comes swimming in to shore she is pounced upon by a mob 

 of roaring, frenzied males. She is bitten, scratched, banged 

 down upon the rocks, and sometimes literally torn limb 

 from limb ; but usually she escapes so severe a fate and is 

 seized by the neck by a victorious bull, who dumps her 

 down in his reservation. But when he has secured from a 

 dozen to fifteen wives the bull has to battle just as strenu- 

 ously to keep them. Often a discontented spouse will 

 endeavour to escape to a neighbouring family, and not 

 infrequently, unhappily, a bigger and stronger bull will 

 annex the whole harem, leaving its owner lamenting until 

 he can despoil of his wives another bull weaker than himself. 



When the baby seals arrive, about the end of the month, 

 the mothers pay them but scant attention, beyond affording 

 them plentiful supplies of rich milk, upon which the young 

 pups make amazing progress. The bulls appear not to be 

 even faintly interested in nursery matters. Strangely enough 

 the young seal is not a born swimmer ; it is necessary for 

 its mother to give it lessons in the art of natation. The pup 

 proves to be an apt learner, and very shortly thousands of 

 young animals are gambolling in the water of their own 

 accord. 



One feature of the seal's life appears to be absolutely 

 inexplicable. For ten months of the year a bull requires 

 a hundredweight of fish a day, and it is no fault of his if the 



