SEALS. 343 



lx)dies writhe and swell with exertion and rage, fur flying in air 

 and blood streaming down — all combined make a picture fierce 

 and savage enough, and, from its great novelty, exceedingly 

 strange at first sight. In these battles the parties are always 

 distinct, the offensive and the defensive ; if the latter proves the 

 weaker he withdraws from the position occupied, and is never 

 followed by his conqueror, who complacently throws up one of 

 his hind flippers, fans himself, as it were, to cool himself from 

 the heat of the conflict, uttering a peculiar chuckle of satisfac- 

 tion and contempt, with a sharp eye open for the next covetous 

 bull or ^ sea-catch ' (native name for the bulls on the rookeries, 

 ■especially those which are able to maintain their position). 



^ 9|P 7|t a|p *|P ^ Tp 



All the bulls, from the very first, that have been able to hold 

 their positions have not left them for an instant, night or day ; 

 nor do they do so until the end of the rutting season, which 

 subsides entirely between the 1st and 10th of August, beginning 

 shortly after the coming of the cows in June. Of necessity, 

 therefore, this causes them to fast, to abstain entirely from food 

 of any kind, or water for at least three months ; and a few of 

 them stay four months before going into the water for the first 

 time after hauling up in May. This alone is remarkable 

 enough, but it is simply wonderful when we come to associate 

 the condition with unceasing activity, restlessness, and duty de- 

 volved upon the bulls as heads and fathers of large families. 

 They do not stagnate like bears in caves ; it is evidently 

 accomplished or due to the absorption of their own fat, with 

 which they are so liberally supplied when they take their posi- 

 tions on the breeding-ground, and which gradually diminishes 

 while they remain on it. 



******* 



They are noticed and received by the bulls on the water-line 

 station with much attention ; they are alternately coaxed and 

 urged up on the rocks, and are immediately under the most 

 jealous supervision ; but owing to the covetous and ambitious 

 nature of the bulls which occupy the stations reaching some way 

 back from the water-line, the little cows have a rough-and- 

 tumble time of it when they begin to arrive in small numbers 

 at first ; for no sooner is the pretty animal fairly established on 

 the station of bull No. 1 who has installed her there, than he 

 perhaps sees another one of her style down in the water from 

 which she has just come, and in obedience to his polygamous 

 feeling, he devotes himself anew to coaxing the later arrival in 

 the same winning manner so successful in her case, when bull 



