28 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



E. THE SEAL-LIFE ON THE PMBYLOV ISLANDS. 



8. THE nAIK-SEAL. 



ENinrERATiON OF THE VARIOUS SPECIES OF SEALS.— The history of the fnrseal, the one oversbadowiufr and 

 superhitivi'ly interesting subject of this disciissiou, I shall present in all its luultitudluons details, even at the risk 

 of being thought ted'ous. The aggregate of animal life shadowed every summer out upon the breeding grounds of 

 the seal-islands is so vast, so anomalous, so interesting, and so valuable, that it deserves the fullest mention; and 

 even when I shall have done, it will be but feebly expressed. 



The seal-life on the Pribylov islands may be classified under tV.e following heads, namely: (1) The fur-seal, 

 Callorhinun ursinus, the "kautiekie" of the liussians; {'2) the sealion, Eiimefopias Stcllcri, the "seevitchie" of the 

 Eussiaus; (.?) the hair seal, Phuva vitulina, the "uearhpahsky" of the IJussians; (4) the walrus, Odobwnun obesus, the 

 "morsjee" of the Russians. 



The HAiit-SEAL. — The above short schedule embraces the titles of all the pinnipeds found in, on, and around the 

 island group. Of this list the hair-seal is the animal which has done so much to found that erroneous, popular, and 

 scientific opinion as to what a lur-seal appears like. Pltoca vituUna hiis. in this manner, given to ibe people of the 

 world a false idea of its relatives. It is so commonly distributed all over the littoral salt wateis of the earth, seen 

 in the harbors of nearly every marine port, or basking along the loneliest and least inhabited of desolate coasts far 

 to the north, that everybody has noticed it, if not in life, then in its stuffed skins at the museums, sometimes 

 very grotesquely stuffed. This copy, set every where before the eye of the naturalist, has rendered it so diflicult 

 for Irim to <!orrectly discriminate between the Plwcidcii and the Ofartida; that the synonymy of the Pinnipedia has 

 been ex])anded until it is replete with meaningless description and surmise. 



Although the hair-seal belongs to the great group of pinnipeds, yet it does not have even a generic aflBnity with 

 those seals with which it has been so persistently grouped, namely, the fur seal and the sea-lion. It no more 

 resembles them, than does the raccoon the black or grizzly bear. 



I shall not enter into a detailed descri[)tiou of this seal ; it is wholly superfluous, for excellent, and, I believe, 

 trustworthy accounts have been repeatedly published by writers* who have treated of the subject as it was spread 

 before their eyes on the coasts of Labrador, Newiouudland, and Greenland; to say nothing of the researches and 

 notes made by European scientists. It differs completely in shape and habit fix)m its congeners on these islands. 

 Here, where I have studied its biology, it seldom comes up Irom the water more than a few rods at the farthest; 

 generally hauling and resting at the margin of the surf-wash. It takes up no position on land to hold and protect 

 a family or harem, preferring the detached water-worn locks, especially those on the lonely north shore of St. Paul, 

 although I have seen it resting at "Gorbotch'', near the sea-margin of the great seal-rookery of that name, on the 

 Keef point of St. Paul; its cylindrical, supine, gray and white body marked in stioug contrast with the erect, black 

 and ocher-colored forms of the CuUorhinus, which swarmed around about it. On such small spots of rock, wet 

 and isolated from the maiidand, and in secluded places on the north shore, the "Nearhpah" brings forth its young, 

 a single pup, perfectly white, covered with long woolly haii% and weighing from 3 to 7 pounds. This pup grows 

 rai)idly, and alter the lapse of four or five months it tips the scales at 50 i)onnds; by that time it has shed its infant 

 coat and donned the adult soft steel-gray hair over the head, limbs, and abdomen, with the back most richly mottled 

 and barred lengthwise, by dark brown and brown-black stieaks and blotches, suttused at their edges into the light 

 steel-gray ground of the body. When they appear in the spring following, this bright gray tone to their color has 

 ripened into a dingy oclier, and the mottling spread well over the head and down on the upper side or back of the 

 flipi)ers, but fades out as it progresses. It has no api)reciable fur or under-wool. There is no noteworthy diftereuce 

 as to color or size between the sexes. So far as I have observed, they are not polygamous. They are exceedingly . 

 tindd and wary at all times, and in this manner and method they are diametrically opposed, not by shape alone, but 

 by habit and disposition, to the fashion of the fur-seal in especial, and the sea-lion. Their skin is of little value, 

 comjiaratively, but their chief merit, according to the natives, is the relative greater juiciness and sweetness of 

 their flesh, over even the best steaks of sea-lion or fur-seal pup meat. 



One connuon point of agreement among all authors was, bj' my observations of fact, so strikingly refuted, that 

 I will here coirect a prevalent error made by naturalists who, comi)aring the hair-seal with the iur-seal, state that 

 in consequence of the peculiar structure of their limbs, their ])rogression on land is "mainly accomplished by a 

 wriggling, serpentine motion of the body, slightly assisted by the extrenuties". This is not so in any respect; for 

 whenever I have purposely surprised these animals, a few rods from the beach-margin, they would awake and 

 excitedly scramble, or rather spasmodically exert themselves, to reach the water instantly, by striking out quickly 

 with both fore-feet simultaneously, lifting in this way alone, and dragging the whole body forward, without any 

 " wriggling motion" whatever to tlieir back or posterior parts, moving from six inches to a foot in advance every 

 time their fore-feet were projected forward, and the body drawn along according to the violence of the effort and 

 the character of the ground; the body of the seal then falls flat upon its stomach, and the fore-feet or flippers are 



*A very complete rfyum^ has bocu giveu by Alleu, Hint. North American Pinnipeds, 1880. 



