AMPHIBIAN MILLIONS. 313 



The figures thus given show a grand massing of 3,193,420 breed- 

 ing-seals and their young. This enormous aggregate is entirely 

 exclusive of the great numbers of the non-breeding-seals that, as 

 we have pointed out, are never permitted to come up on those 

 grounds which have been surveyed and epitomized by the table 

 just exhibited. That class of seals, the " hoUuschickie," in general 

 terms (all males, and those to which the killing is confined), come 

 uj) on the land and sea-beaches between the rookeries, in immense 

 straggling di'oves, going to and from the sea at irregular intervals, 

 from the beginning to the closing of an entire season. The 

 method of the "hoUuschickie" on these hauling-grounds is not 

 systematic — it is not distinct, like the manner and law prescribed 

 and obeyed by the breeding-seals — therefore it is impossible to 

 arrive at a definite enumeration, and my estimate for them is purely 

 a matter of my individual judgment. I think they may be safely 

 rated at 1,500,000 ; thus, we have the wonderful number of -4,700,- 

 000 fur-seals assembled every summer on the rocky rookeries and 

 sandy hauling-grounds of the Pribylov Islands ! 



No language can express adequately your sensations when you 

 first stroll over the outskirts of anv one of those "'reat breedincr 

 grounds of the fur-seal on St. Paul's Island. There is no imi^res- 

 sion on my mind more fixed than is the one stamped thereon dur- 

 ing the afternoon of a July day Avheu I walked aroimd the inner 

 margins of that immmense rookery at Northeast Point — indeed, 

 while I pause to think of this subject, I am fairly rendered dumb 

 by the vivid spectacle which rises promptly to my view — I am 

 conscious of my inability to render that magnificent animal-show 

 justice in definition. It is a vast camp of parading squadrons 

 which file and deploy over slopes from the summit of a lofty hill a 

 mile down to where it ends on the south shore — a long mile, smooth 

 and gradual from the sea to that hill-top ; the parade-ground lyiu"- 

 between is also nearly three-quarters of a mile in width, sheer and 

 unbroken. Now, upon that area before my eyes, this day and date 

 of which I have spoken, were the forms of not less than three- 

 fourths of a million seals — pause a moment — think of the number 

 — three -fourths of a million seals, moving in one solid mass from 

 sleep to frolicsome gambols, backward, forward, over, around, 

 changing and interchanging their heavy squadrons, until the whole 

 mind is so confused and charmed by the vastness of mighty hosts 

 that it refuses to analyze any further. Then, too, I i-emember that 



