278 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



At the rear of all these rookeries there is invariably a large 

 number of able-bodied males which have come late, and wait 

 patiently, yet in vain, for families ; most of them having had to 

 fight as desperately for the privilege of being there as any of their 

 more fortunately located neighbors, who are nearer the water, and 

 in succession from there to where they are themselves ; but the 

 cows do not like to be in any outside position. They cannot be 

 coaxed out where they are not in close company with their female 

 mates and masses. They lie most quietly and contentedly in the 

 largest harems, and cover the surface of the ground so thickly 

 that there is hardly moving or turning room when they cease to 

 come from the sea. The inaction on the part of those males in the 

 rear during the breeding season only serves to well qualify them for 

 moving into the places which are necessarily vacated by disabled 

 males that are, in the meantime, obliged to leave from virile exhaus- 

 tion, or incipient wounds. All the surplus able-bodied bulls, which 

 have not been successful in effecting a landing on the rookeries can- 

 not be seen at any one time, however, in the season, on this rear line. 

 Only a portion of their number are in sight ; the others are either 

 loafing at sea, adjacent, or are hauled out in-morose squads between 

 the rookeries on the beaches. The cows, during the whole season, 

 do great credit to their amiable expression by their manner and 

 behavior on the rookery. They never fight or quarrel one with 

 another, and never or seldom utter a cry of pain or rage when they 

 are roughly handled by the bulls, which frequently get a cow be- 

 tween them and actually tear the skin from her back with their 

 teeth, cutting deep gashes in it as they snatch her from mouth to 

 mouth. If sand does not get into these wounds it is surprising how 

 rapidly they heal ; and, from the fact that I never could see scars 

 on them anywhere except the fresh ones of this year, they must 

 heal effectually and exhibit no trace the next season. 



The cows, like the bulls, vary much in weight, but the ex- 

 traordinary disparity in the adult size of the sexes is exceedingly 

 striking. Two females taken from the rookery nearest to St. Paul 

 village, right under the bluffs (and almost beneath the eaves of the 

 natives' houses) called " Nah Speel," after they had brought forth 

 their young, were weighed by myself, and their respective returns 

 on the scales were fifty-six and one hundred pounds each ; the 

 former being about three or four years old, and the latter over six 

 perhaps ten. Both were fat, or rather, in good condition as good 



