THE EARED SEALS. 



245 



a male remains which is not covered with 

 wounds, scars, and putrefying sores. But 

 then there are heroes who possess as many 

 as forty wives! 



Immediately after their arrival the females 

 give birth to a single young one, and within 

 a few days after the birth there are new 

 fights, since the females are not insensible to 

 the solicitations of the bachelors. At last 



the females give themselves up to the tender 

 care of their young, which they suckle on the 

 land, and at the end of six or seven weeks 

 dive into the sea to teach them to swim. At 

 first the young are so inexpert in swimming 

 that they are often in danger of drowning. 



During this period, which lasts in all, 

 perhaps, three months, the beach-masters, 

 which had arrived large and fat at the 



Fig. 126. — The Sea-bear \Otaria ursina). 



beginning of the season, have remained, as 

 Trouessart states, without meat or drink, 

 bound day and night to their camping-grounds, 

 fighting and watching without intermission. 

 They are now reduced to skeletons, and 

 scarcely have strength enough to drag them- 

 selves into the sea. At last at the beginning 

 of October all is ended. The shore is de- 

 serted. The old ones have gone off first, and 

 the others have followed them. 



The destruction of these animals by the 

 seal-fishers is facilitated by the order which 

 the sea-bears observe in their encampments. 

 They are killed chiefly for their skins, which, 

 after undergoing a careful and laborious 

 treatment, are sold in England as linings for 

 garments. At the place of capture they are 

 merely salted. Only the three -year -old 



bachelors, which yield the finest furs, are 

 slain. Since these lie apart from the others 

 the old males with their harems are not 

 molested, and get so accustomed to the 

 presence of man that one can move about in 

 these singular encampments without disturb- 

 ing them. As for the bachelors, they are 

 surrounded during their sleep, their retreat 

 to the sea cut off, and then they are driven 

 in hundreds to the slaughtering places, which 

 lie at a distance of a mile and a half at most. 

 There they are struck down with clubs, their 

 skin stripped off and salted, and the oil, which 

 is used only by the natives, since its smell is 

 very strong, extracted from their bodies by 

 boiling. The very tough and ill -smelling 

 flesh is eaten only by the inhabitants of the 

 Aleutian Islands. 



