98 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



records thus obtained; also, 1 made the lollowiug- classification then 

 (1872), wliicli is still entirely applicable to these seals as they exist now 



(1890). 



CLASSING THE IIOLLUSCHICKIE BY AGE. 



When the holluschickie are np on laud they can be readily separated 

 into their several classes as to ag'e hy the color of their coats and size 

 when noted, namely, the yearlings, the "2, 3, 4, and o year old males. 

 When the yearlings, or the first class, hanl ont. they are dressed just 

 as tiiey were after they shed their pup (;oats, and took on their second 

 covering during the previous year, in September and October; now, as 

 they come out in the spring and summer, 1 year old, the males and 

 females can not he distinguished apart^ either hy color or size, shape 

 or action; the yearlings of both sexes have the same steel-gray backs 

 and white stomachs, and are alike in behavior and weight. 



Next year these yearling females, which are now trooping out with 

 the youthful males on the hauling grounds, will repair as nubiles to the 

 rookeries; while their male companions will be obliged to come again 

 to this same spot, without them. 



SHEDDING THE HAIR — STAGEY SEALS. 



About. the 15th and 20th of every August they have become per- 

 cei)tibly "stagey," or, in other words, their hair is well under way in 

 shedding. All chisses, with the exception of the pups, go through this 

 })rocess, at this time, every year. The process requires about six weeka 

 between the first dropping or falling out of the old over hair and its 

 full substitution by the new. This takes place as a rule between Au- 

 gust 1 and September 28. 



The fur is shed: but it is so shed that the ability of the seal to take 

 to the water and stay there, and not to be physically chilled or dis- 

 turbed during the process of raoltingf, is never impaired. The wliole 

 surfiU'e of these extensive breeding grounds, traversed over by us after 

 the seals had gone, was literally matted with the shed hair and fur. 

 This under fur or pelage is, however, so fine and delicate and so much 

 concealed and shaded by the coarser over hair that a careless eye or a 

 superficial observer might be pardoned in failing to notice the fact of 

 its dropping and renewal. 



The yenrling cows retain the colors of the old coat in the new when 

 they shed it for the first time, and from that time on, year after year, 

 as tliey live and g-row old. The young 3-year-olds and the older cows 

 look exactly alike, as far as color goes, when they haul up at first and 

 dry off on the rookeries, every June and July. 



The yearling males, however, make a radical change when they shed 

 lor the first time : they then come out from their " staginess" in a nearly 

 uniform dark gray, and gray and black mixed, and lighter, with dark 

 ocherto whitish, on the upperand under parts, respectively. This coat 

 next year, when they appear as 2yearolds, shedding for the 3year-old 

 coat, is of a very much darker gray, and so on to the third, fourth, and 

 fifth season; then after this, with age, they begin to grow more gray 

 and brown, with rufous-ocher and whitish-tipped over hair on the shoul- 

 ders. Some of the very old bulls change in their declining years to a 

 uniform shade all over of dull grayish ocher. The full glory and beauty 

 of the seal's mustache is denied to him until he has attained his seventh 

 or eighth year. 



CHANGE IN PELAGE. 



This change for the worse, or deterioration of the pelage of the male 

 fur seals, takes i)lace, as a rule, in the fifth year of their age. It is 



