AMPHIBIAN MILLIONS. 265 



It appears from my survey of these breeding grounds that a 

 well-understood principle exists among the able-bodied males, to- 

 wit : that each one shall remain undisturbed on his own ground, 

 which is usually about six to eight feet square : provided, that at the 

 start, and from that time until the arrival of the females, he is strong 

 enough to hold this ground against all comers ; inasmuch as the 

 crowding in of fresh arrivals often causes a removal of those 

 which, though equally able-bodied at first, have exhausted them- 

 selves by fighting earlier and constantly, they are finally driven by 

 these fresher animals back farther and higher up on the rookery, 

 and sometimes off altogether. 



The labor of locating and maintaining a position on the rookery 

 is real, terrible and serious business for these bulls which come in 

 last, and it is so all the time to those males that occupy the water- 

 line of the breeding grounds. A constantly sustained fight between 

 the new-comers and the occupants goes on morning, noon, and night, 

 without cessation, frequently resulting in death to one, or even both, 

 of the combatants. The " seecatchie " under six years of age, al- 

 though hovering about the sea-margins of the breeding grounds, 

 do not engage in much fighting there ; it is the six and seven year 

 old males, ambitious and flushed with a full sense of their re- 

 productive ability, that swarm out and do battle with the older 

 males of these places. A young male of this latter class is, how- 

 ever, no match for any fifteen or twenty year old bull, provided 

 that an old " seecatchie " retains his teeth ; for, with these weapons, 

 his relatively harder thews and sinews give him the advantage in 

 almost every instance among the hundreds of combats that I have 

 witnessed. These trials of strength between the old and the young 

 are incessant until the rookeries are mapped out ; since, by common 

 consent, the males of all classes recognize the coming of the females. 

 After their arrival and settlement over the whole extent of the 

 breeding grounds, about July 15th at the latest, very little fighting 

 takes place. 



Many of those bulls exhibit wonderful strength and desperate 

 courage. I marked one veteran at Gorbatch, who was the first to 

 take up his position early in May, and that position, as usual, 

 directly on the water-line. This male seal had fought at least forty 

 or fifty desperate battles, and beaten off his assailants every time 

 perhaps nearly as many different seals each of which had coveted his 

 position when the fighting season was over (after the cows are 



