292 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



which mark the last of those animals that had been rendered in- 

 firm, sick, and killed by fighting among themselves in the early 

 part of the season, or of those which have crawled far away from 

 the scene of battle to die from death-wounds received in bitter 

 struo'o'les for a harem. On the rookeries, wherever these lifeless 

 bodies rest, the living, old and young, clamber and patter backward 

 and forward over and on the putrid remains : thus such constant 

 stirring up of decayed matter, gives rise to an exceedingly disagree- 

 able and far-reaching " funk." This has been, by all writers who 

 have dwelt on the subject, referred to as the smell which those ani- 

 mals emit for another reason — erroneously called the " rutting 

 odor." If these creatures have any odor peculiar to them when in 

 this condition, I will frankly confess that I am unable to distinguish 

 it from the fumes which are constantly being stirred up and arising 

 out of those putrescent carcasses so disturbed, as well as from 

 the bodies of the few pups which have been killed accidentally by 

 heavy bulls fighting over them, charging back and forth against one 

 another, so much of the time. 



They have, however, a very characteristic and peculiar smell 

 when they are di'iven and get heated ; their breath-exhalations 

 possess a disagreeable, faint, sickly odor, and when I have walked 

 within its influence at the rear of a seal-drive, I could almost fancy, 

 as it entered my nostrils, that I stood beneath an ailantus-tree in 

 full bloom ; but this odor can by no means be confounded with 

 what is universally ascribed to another cause. It is also noteworthy 

 that if your finger is touched ever so lightly to a little fur-seal 

 blubber, it will smell very much like that which I have appreciated 

 and described as peculiar to their breath, which arises from them 

 when they are driven, only it is a little stronger. Both the young 

 and old fur-seals have this same breath-taint at all seasons of the 

 year. 



With the precision of clock-work and the regularity of the pre- 

 cession of the seasons, fur-seals have adopted and enforced the 

 following method of life on these islands of Pribylov. In this sys- 

 tem millions of those highly organized animals sustain themselves. 



First. — The earliest bulls land in a negligent, indolent way, at 

 the opening of the season, soon after the rocks" at the water's edge 

 are free from ice, frozen snow, etc. This is, as a rule, about the 

 1st to the 5th of every May. They land from the beginning to the 

 end of the season in perfect confidence and without fear ; they are 



