FEBRUARY 23 



congregate for breeding purposes in what, by rude 

 analogy, are called ' rookeries.' These rookeries belong 

 to the United States, and the annual killing is con- 

 ducted under strict regulations imposed by that 

 Government. Only males are allowed to be killed, and 

 of these not more than 100,000 annually. This may 

 seem an exorbitant drain upon the colony, but in truth 

 it is a benefit to it. The males are polygamous, the 

 harem of an old and vigorous one numbering ten or 

 fifteen wives. For a period of three or four months the 

 males take no food, never leaving the islands to fish, 

 but spend their whole time trying to filch each other's 

 wives, fighting furiously and to the death, so that the 

 mortality among them must always be very heavy, even 

 should no hunter ever set foot upon the islands. Nor 

 is the mortality confined to the combatants ; many 

 females and young get trampled to death in the mellay. 

 Now the slaughter of 100,000 large animals (the 

 male fur-seal measures from four to eight feet long) 

 cannot be other than a painful, even a revolting 

 spectacle. It is the ' bachelor ' or young males that are 

 taken. These lie in droves on the higher ground, 

 watching enviously the matrimonial proceedings of 

 their more powerful seniors on the flats. A driving 

 party of white men and alert Indians creeps round 

 between a company of these bachelors and the shore, 

 surrounds them, and drives them two or three miles 

 inland to the killing ground. It is this ' drive ' whereof 

 Mr. Collinson complains as needlessly cruel; for the 

 seal, so swift and graceful in the water, travels 

 awkwardly and painfully on land, He does not make 



