S MILLIONS. 



imed between the two extremes of desperate conflict and deep 

 steep sleep so profound that one can, if he keeps to the leeward, 

 approach close enough, stepping softly, to pull the whiskers of any 

 old male taking a nap on a clear place. But after the first touch to 

 these mustaches the trifler must jump back with electrical celerity, 

 if he has any regard for the sharp teeth and tremendous shaking 

 which will surely overtake him if he does not. The younger seals 

 sleep far more soundly than the old ones, and it is a favorite pas- 

 tor the natives to surprise them in this manner favorite, be- 

 cause it is attended with no personal risk. The little beasts, those 

 amphibious sleepers, rise suddenly, and fairly shrink to the earth, 

 spitting and coughing out in their terror and confusion. 



The neck, chest, and shoulders of a fur-seal bull comprise more 

 than two-thirds of his whole weight ; and in this long, thick neck 

 and the powerful muscles of the fore-limbs and shoulders is em- 

 bodied the larger portion of his strength. When on land, with the 

 fore-hands he does all climbing over rocks and grassy hummocks 

 back of the rookery, or shuffles his halting way over smooth 

 parades the hind-feet are gathered up as useless trappings after 

 second step forward, which we have described at the outset 

 of this chapter. These anterior nippers are also the propelling 

 power when in water, and exclusive machinery with which they 

 drive their rapid passage the hinder ones float behind like the 

 steering sweep to a whale-boat, and are used evidently as rudders, 

 or as the tail of a bird is, while its wings sustain and force its rapid 

 flight 



The covering to its body is composed of two coats, one being a 

 short, crisp, glistening over-hair, and the other a close, soft, elastic 

 pelage or fur, which gives a distinctive value to the pelt. I can 

 call it readily to the mind of my readers when I say to them that 

 the down and feathers on the breast of a duck lie relatively as the 

 fur and hair do upon the skin of the seaL 



At this season of first " hauling up " * in the spring the prevail- 

 ing color of the bulls, after they dry off and have been exposed to 

 the weather, is a dark, dull brown, with a sprinkling in it of lighter 

 brown-black, and a number of hoary or grizzled gray coats peculiar 



* " Hauling up." is a technical term applied to the action of seals when 

 they land from the surf and haul up or drag themselves over the beach. It 

 ;>ressive and appropriate, as are most of the sealing phrases. 



