THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 29 



free again for another similar motion. This action of Plioca is effected so continuously and so rapidly, that in 

 attempting to head off a young "Nearhpah" from the water, at English bay, I was obliged to leave a brisk walk 

 and take to a dog trot to do it. The hind-feet are not used wheu exerted iu this rapid movement at all ; they are 

 dragged along in the wake of the body, perfectly limp and motionless. But they do use those posterior parts, 

 however, when leisurely climbing up and over rocks undisturbed, or playing one with another; still it is always a 

 weak, trembling terrestrial effort, and particularly impotent and clumsy. In their swift swimming the hind-feet 

 of Phocidce evidently do all the work; the reverse is the characteristic of the Otariidas. 



These remarks of mine, it should be borne in nund, a]>ply directly to Phoca vliuUna^ and I presume indirectly 

 with eqnal force to all the rest of its more important generic kindred, be they as large as Plioca barbata or less. 



This hair-seal is found around these islands at all seasons of the year, but in very small numbers. I have never 

 seen more than twenty-five or thirty at any one time, and I am told that its occidental distribution, although 

 everywhere found, above and below, from the arctic to the tropics, and especially general over the Noitli Pacific 

 coast, nowhere exhibits any great number at any one place; but we know that it and its immediate kindred 

 form a vast majority of the nmltitudinons seal-life peculiar to our North Atlantic shores, ice floes, and contiguous 

 waters. The scarcity of this species, and of all its generic allies, in the waters of the Paciiic, is notable as comiyared 

 with those of the circumpolar Atlairtic, where these hair-seals are the seals of commerce, and are found in such 

 inmiense numbers between Greenland and Labrador, and thence to the eastward at certain seasons* of every year, 

 that employment is given to a ileet of about sixty sailing and steam vessels, which annually go forth t from St. John, 

 ■STewfoundland, and elsewhere, fitted for seal-fishing, taking in all their voyages over 300,000 of these animals each 

 season ; (he princii)al object of value, however, is the od rendered irom them, the skins having very small commercial 

 importance. ^ Touching oil, etc., a business digest of this subject, as it refers to the seal-islands of Alaska, will be 

 found in this memoir, in that portion descriptive of the methods employed by working the hauliug-grouuds of the 

 "holluschickie". 



9. LIFE-HISTORY OF THE FCTll-SEAL. 



Desoeiption of an ADtTLT MALE. — The fur-seal, CaJlorlmnis vrsimis, which repairs to these islands to 

 breed and to shed its hair and fur, in numbers that seem almost fabulous, is the highest organized of all the 

 Phniipedia, and, -indeed, for that matter, when land and water are weighed in the account together, there is no other 

 animal known to man which can be truly, as it is, classed superior, from a purely physical point of view. Certainly 

 there ai-e few, if any, creatures iu the animal kingdom that can be said to exhibit a higher order of instinct, 

 approaching even our intelligence. 



I wish to draw attention to a specimen of the finest of this race— a male in the flush and prime of his first 

 maturity, six or seven years old, and full grown. "When it comes up from the sea early in the sjuing, out to its station 

 for the breeding season, we have an animal before us that will measure CJ to 7^ feet in length from tip of nose to 

 the end of its abbreviated, abortive tail. It will weigh at least 400 pounds, and I have seen older specimens much 

 more corpulent, which, iu my best judgment, could not be less than COO pounds in weight. The head of th's 

 animal now before us, appears to be disproportionately small in comparison with the immensely thick neck and 

 shoulders; but, as we come to examine it we will find it is mostly all occupied by the brain. The light frame-work 

 of the skull supports an expressive pair of large bluish hazel eyes; alternately burning with revengeful, passionate 

 light, then suddeidy changing to the tones of tenderness and good nature. It has a muzzle and jaws of about the 

 same size and form observed iu any full-blooded Newfoundland dog, with this difference, that the lips are not 

 flabby and overhangiiig; they are as firmly lined and ]iressed against one another as our own. The ujjper ]ii)8 

 support a yellowish white and gray moustache, composed of long, stifl' bristles, and when it is not torn out and 

 broken off' in combat, it sweeps down and over the shoulders as a luxuriant plume. Look at it as it comes 

 leisurely swimming on toward the land ; see how high above the water it carries its head, and how deliberately it 

 surveys the beach, alter having stepped upon it (for it may be truly said to stej) with its fore-flippers, as they 

 regularly alternate when it moves up), carrying the head well above them, erect and graceful, at least three feet 



"Maicli and AiJril. t Sailing on the 10th of March, siuiiiltaneoiisly : the Canadian law prohibits earlier work iu this respect. 



t An excellent, and, as far as I know, a correct description of this seal-fishery in the North Atlantic has been published by Michael 

 Carroll, in his Seal and Hcrriiiff Finheries of Kcwfounilland. This gentleman writes in a manner indicative of much familiarity with tlio 

 business, thongli it is to be, regretted that his observations were not more systematized and concentrated. Mr. Carroll, wlieu ho 

 published his work in 1873, had enjoyed a personal experience of over fifty years in the hair-seal hunting of the North Athantic, and tliis 

 report is, therefore, perhaps the best exposition of the habit and condition of those Vhovida: that is extant; at least I should judge lO. 

 Riibert Brown, in 18o8 (Proc. Zool. Society, Lonib>u, pp. 413-418), gives a graphic sketch of the life of the Greenland liair-seal, while 

 Ludwig Kumlein, in "Bulletin No. l.'i" of the United States National Museum, 1879, presents altogether the most interesting and valuable 

 biology of the hair-se.ils iu the waters of Cumberland sound that has as yet been printed. Allen, iu his Hisiortj of ilic North American 

 riniiijjeds, l^'SO, has, with painstaking labor, carefully compiled the pertinent remarks of a whole army of lesser authorities upon the 

 doing and well-being of the Pliocidw, and has arraug(!d them in his memoir so that they appear to the best advantage. Carroll's re port 

 is exceedingly interesting, and could he be induced to rewrite his notes, systeuuitisiug them, or permit some naturalist to do so who might 

 draw out from him information on important points, now hidden, the result undoubtedly would accrue greatly to the lienefit of all 

 concerned, and cause him to reap a fitting recognition of his knowledge of the subject, which seems to be very full and exhaustive, aa lar 

 as expressed by himself. 



