THE WHITE WORLD 



polygamists, and the females, arriving in June, are gathered 

 into these respective families. The larger harems contain 

 twenty or thirty females, but smaller ones are the most 

 numerous. Over each harem an old male presides, perched 

 on some rock in the midst of his family where he can have 

 them all under his eye and watch the approach of encroach- 

 ing rivals. All of the males by no means succeed in being 

 polygamists, but the patriarch with a single wife is as 

 zealous in guarding his small family as if he were the 

 wealthy owner of a dozen. The poorer individual with but 

 one or two wives is usually to be found crowded as far 

 away from the water as possible by his more successful 

 rivals. He is, however, an interesting creature, for what he 

 lacks in wealth of family, he makes up in his demonstra- 

 tions of zeal in its defence. 



We visited the rookeries on St. Paul Island early in 

 July. Although the herds are very much smaller than for- 

 merly they seemed immense, and thousands together were 

 wriggling about their respective locations, or sporting in 

 the adjacent waters. On the shore they are as closely 

 associated as a flock of sheep in a pasture, stretching along 

 the beach by thousands — denser here, sparser there. 



The males are four or five times as large, in weight, as 

 the females. They are six or seven feet long and weigh 

 four hundred pounds, more or less. We call these animals 

 popularly " seals," but they are very unlike the true seals 

 or hair seals, some species of which are found in the same 

 waters, and of which still other kind occur in great numbers 

 about the North Atlantic coast, especially of Greenland and 

 along the coast of Labrador. The fur seals are unlike them 

 in looks and motions, and eminently unlike them in be- 

 havior during that portion of their lives which is spent out 

 of the water. 



Prompted by their natural instincts, these herds are 

 organized into communities which seem to be governed 

 by rules, almost as well defined and as strictly followed 

 as the laws which govern savage communities of man- 

 kind. We are told that the time of their coming and 

 going, the preempting and defence of claims, the guarding 

 of the family, the breaking of the camps and disorganiza- 

 tion of the community before leaving, the time and order 



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