268 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



to the veiy old males. On the shoiilders of all of them — that is, 

 the adults — the over-hair is either a gray or rufous-ochre or a 

 very emphatic "pepper and salt." This is called the "wig." The 

 body-colors * are most intense and pronounced upon the back of 

 the head, neck, and spine, fading down on the flanks lighter, to 

 much lighter ground on the abdomen ; still never white or even a 

 clean gray, so beautiful and peculiar to them when young, and to 

 the females. The skin of the muzzle and flippers is a dark bluish- 

 black, fading in the older examples to a reddish and purplish tint. 

 The color of the ears and tail is similar to that of the body, jDerhaps 

 a trifle lighter. The ears on a bull fur-seal are from one inch to an 

 inch and a half in length. The pavilions or auricles are tightly 

 rolled up on themselves, so that they are similar in shape to and 

 exactly the size of the little finger on the human hand, cut off at 

 the second phalangeal joint — a trifle more cone-shaped, however — as 

 they are greater at the base than they are at the tip. They are 

 haired and furred as the body is. 



I think it probable that this animal is able to and does exert the 

 power of compressing or dilating this scroll-like jDavilion to its ear, 

 just according as it dives deeper or rises in the water, and also I 

 am quite sure that the hair-seal has this control over its meatus ex- 

 ternus, from what I have seen of it. I have not been able to verify 

 it in either case by actual observation ; yei such opportunity as I 

 have had gives me undoubted proof of the fact that the hearing of 

 a fur-seal is wonderfully keen and surpassingly acute. If you 

 make any noise, no matter how slight, an alarm will be given in- 

 stantly by these insignificant-looking auditors, and the animal, 

 awaking from profound sleep, assumes, with a single motion, an 

 erect posture, gives a stare of stupid astonishment, at the same time 

 breaking out into incessant, surly roaring, growling, and " spit- 

 ting," if it be an old male. 



This sjjitting, as I call it, is by no means a fair or full expression 

 of a most characteristic sound or action, so far as I have ob- 



* There is also perfect uniformity in the coloration of the breeding coats 

 of fur-seals, which is strikingly manifest while inspecting the rookeries 

 latf' in July, when they are solidly massed thereon. At a quarter-mile dis- 

 tance the whole immense aggregate of animal life seems to be fused into a 

 huge homogeneous body that is alternately roused up in sections and then 

 composed, just as a quantity of iron-filings covering the bottom of a saucer 

 will rise and fall when a magnet is passed over and around the dish. 



