286 OTTR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



also, a large number of young, three, four, aucl five year old males 

 come, -which have been prevented by the menacing threats of 

 stronger bulls from an earlier landing among the females during 

 the breeding season. 



Before the middle of August three-fourths, at least, of the cows 

 at this date are off in the water, only coming ashore at irregular 

 intervals to nurse and look after their pups a short time. They 

 presented to my eye, from the summits of the bluffs round about, 

 a picture inore suggestive of entire comfort and enjoyment than any- 

 thing I have ever seen presented by animal life. Here, just out 

 and beyond the breaking of the rollers, they idly lie on the rocks 

 or sand-beaches, ever and anon turning over and over, scratching 

 their backs and sides with their fore and hind flippers. The seals 

 on the breeding ground apjiear to get very lousy.* 



Frequent winds and showers will drive and spatter sand into 

 their fur and eyes, often making the latter quite sore. This occurs 

 when they are obliged to leave the rocky rookeries and follow their 

 23ups out over the sand-ridges and flats, to which they always have 

 a natural aversion. On the hauling-grounds they j)!ick the soil 

 under their feet so hard and tightly in many j^laces that it holds 

 water in shallow surface-depressions,-just like so many rock-basins. 

 Out of and into these puddles the pups and the females flounder 



* The fiar-seal spends a great deal of time, both at sea and on land, in 

 scratching its hide ; for it is annoyed by a species of louse, a j^ecUcidus, to jnst 

 about the same degree and in the same manner that our dogs are by fleas. To 

 scratch, it sits i;pon its haunches, and scrapes away with the toe-nails of first 

 one and then the other of its hind flippers, by which action it reaches readily 

 all portions of its head, neck, chest and shoulders, and with either one or the 

 other of its fore flippers it rubs down its spinal region back of the shoulders to 

 the tail. By that division of labor with its feet it can promptly reduce, with 

 every sign of comfort, any lousy irritation wheresoever on its body. This 

 pediculus peculiar to the fiir-seal attaches itself almost exclusively to the pec- 

 toral regions ; a few also are generally found at the bases of the auricular 

 pavilions. 



When the fur-seal is engaged in this exercise it cocks its head and wears 

 exactly the same expression that our common house-dog does while subjugat- 

 ing and eradicating fleas ; the eyes are partly or wholly closed ; the tongue 

 lolls out ; and the whole demeanor is one of quiet but intense satisfaction. 



The fur-seal appears also to scratch itself in the water with the same facil- 

 ity and unction so marked on land, only it varies the action by using its fore- 

 hands principally in its pelagic exercise, while its hind-feet do most of the 

 terrestrial scraping. 



