134 THE STORY OF LIFE IN THE SEAS. 



games. The play-grounds are however the scene 

 of the tragedies of Seal life, for they are resorted 

 to by the hunters, who slaughter immense 

 numbers of the larger males for the sake of 

 their valuable skins. As the skins of the old 

 male Seals are not of very much value and as it 

 is important, for the perpetuation of the race, to 

 preserve the females from injury, the breeding 

 grounds are usually not molested. It is there- 

 fore the bachelor seal of from two to five or six 

 years of age that has to supply the market. 

 Those naturalists who have visited the Seal 

 rookeries on these islands say that the numbers 

 of these animals that can be seen at one time 

 is almost incredible. We can form some estimate 

 of them when we learn that over a hundred 

 thousand skins are exported from the Pribylov 

 islands alone every year. 



The Seals leave the rookeries in the month of 

 August, and after swimming about for some time 

 in the neighbourhood of the islands, eventually 

 depart into the open ocean in search of the food 

 their famished bodies need so much after the 

 fasting and fighting of the breeding months. 



The largest of all these aquatic Carnivores is 

 the Walrus, which lives within a short distance 

 of the shores of the lands in the Arctic regions. 

 It is easily distinguished from the Seals by 

 its great size, the males reaching a length of 

 10 or 12 feet, and by the enormous canine 

 teeth in the upper jaws, which project down- 

 wards from the cover of the lips in the form of 

 two large pointed tusks. These tusks are used 

 for hoisting the bodies of the animals on to the 



