AMPHIBIAN MILLIONS. 293 



very fat, and will weigh on an average five hundred pounds each ; 

 some stay at the water's edge, some go to the tier back of them 

 again, and so forth, until the whole rookery is mapped out by them, 

 weeks in advance of the arrival of the first female. 



Second. That by the 10th or 12th of June, all the male stations 

 on the rookeries have been mapped out and fought for, and held in 

 waiting by the "see-catchie." These males are, as a rule, bulls 

 rarely ever under six years of age ; most of them are over that age, 

 being sometimes three, and occasionally doubtless four or five 

 times as old. 



Third. That the cows make their first appearance, as a class, 

 on or after the 12th or 15th of June, in very small numbers, but 

 rapidly after the 23d and 25th of this month, every year, they begin 

 to flock up in such numbers as to fill the harems very perceptibly, 

 and by the 8th or 10th of July they have all come, as a rule a few 

 stragglers excepted. The average weight of the females now will 

 not be much more than eighty to ninety pounds each. 



Fourth. That the breeding season is at its height from the 10th 

 to the 15th of July every year, and that it subsides entirely at the 

 end of this month and early in August ; also, that its method and 

 system are confined entirely to the land, never effected in the sea. 



Fifth. That the females bear their first young when they are 

 three years old, and that the period of gestation is nearly twelve 

 months, lacking a few days only of that lapse of time. 



Sixth. That the females bear a single pup each, and that this 

 is born soon after landing. No exception to this rule as ever been 

 witnessed or recorded. 



Seventh. That the " see-catchie " which have held the harems 

 from the beginning to the end of the season, leave for the water in 

 a desultory and straggling manner at its close, greatly emaciated, 

 and do not return, if they do at all, until six or seven weeks have 

 elapsed, when the regular systematic distribution of the families 

 over the rookeries is at an end for this season. A general medley 

 of young males now are free : they come out of the water, and wan- 

 der over all these rookeries, together with many old males, which 

 have not been on seraglio duty, and great numbers of the females. 

 An immense majority over all others present are pups, since only 

 about twenty-five per cent, of the mother-seals are out of the water 

 now at any one time. 



Eighth. That the rookeries lose their compactness and definite 



