AMPHIBIAN MILLIONS. 267 



assumed between the two extremes of desperate conflict and deep 

 sleep — sleep so profound that one can, if be 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 3'ounger seals 

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

 time for the natives to surprise them in this manner — favorite, be- 

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

 amphibious sleej^ers, 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 powei'ful 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 

 every second step forward, which we have described at the outset 

 of this chapter. These anterior flijjpers 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, w'hile 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 the}' dry off and have been exposed to 

 the weather, is a dark, duU 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 laud from tlie surf and haul up or drag themselves over the beach. It 

 is expressive and appropriate, as are most of the sealing phrases. 



