38 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



and sli^lit sliiftiug of tlie flijipers, togetlier with ever a.iid anon quivering and uneasy rollings of the body, accompanied 

 by a quick folding anew of the fore-flippers; all of which may be signs, as it were, in fact, of their simply having 

 nightmares, or of sporting, in a visionary way, far off in some dreamland sea; but perhaps very much as 

 an old nurse said, in reference to the smiles on a sleeping child's face, they are disturbed by their intestinal 

 parasites. I have studied hundreds of such somnolent examples. Stealing softly up so closely that I could lay 

 my hand upon them from the point where I was sitting, did I wish to, and watching the sleeping seals, I have 

 always found their sleep to be of this nervous description. The respiration is short and rapid, but with no 

 breathing (unless the ear is brought very close) or snoring sound; the quivering, heaving of the flanks only 

 indicates the action of the lungs. I have frequently thought that I had succeeded in finding a snoring seal, 

 especially among the pups; but a close examination always gave some abnormal reason ior it; generally a slight 

 distemper, never anything severer, however, than some trifle, by which the nostrils were stopped up to a greater or 

 less degree. 



The cows on the rookeries sleep a great deal, but the males have the veriest cat-naps that can be imagined. I 

 never could time the slumber of any old male on the breeding-grounds, whi(-h lasted without interruption longer 

 than five minutes, day or night; while away from these places, however, 1 have known them to lie sleeping in the 

 manner 1 have described, broken by these fitful, nervous, dreamy starts, yet without opening the eyes, for an hour 

 or so at a time. 



With the exception of the pups, the fur-seal seems to have very little rest awake or sleeping ; perpetual motion 

 is well nigh incarnate with its being. 



Fur-seal pups. — As I have said before, the females, soon after landing, are delivered of their young. 

 Immediately after the birth of the pup (twins are rare, if ever) the little creature finds its voice, a weak, husky 

 blaat, and begins to paddle about with its eyes wide open from the start, in a confused sort of way for a few 

 minutes, until the mother turns around to notice her oflspring and give it attention, and still later to suckle it ; 

 and for this purpose she is supplied with four small, brown nipples, almost wholly concealed in the fur, and which 

 are placed about eight inches apart, lengthwise with the body, on the abdomen, between the fore- and hind-flippers, 

 with about four inches of space between them transversely. These nipples are seldom visible, and then faintly 

 "seen through the hair and fur. The milk is abundant, rich, and creamy. The pups nurse very heartily, almost 

 gorging themselves, so much so that they often have to yield up the excess of what they have taken down, mewling 

 and puking in the most orthodox manner. 



The pup from birth, and for the next three months, is of a jet-black color, hair and flippers, save a tiny white 

 patch just back of each forearm. It weighs first from three to four pounds, and is twelve to fourteen inches long. 

 It does not seem to nurse more than once every two or three days, but in this I am very likely mistaken, for they 

 may have received attention from the mother in the night, or other times in the day when I was unable to keep up 

 my watch over the individuals which I had marked for this supervision. 



The apathy with which the young are treated by the old on the breeding- grounds, especially by the mothers, 

 was very strange to me, and I was considerably surjirised at it. I have never seen a seal-mother caress or fondle 

 her oflspring; and should it stray to a short distance from the harem, I could step to and pick it up, and even kill 

 it before the mother's eye, without causing her the slightest concern, as far as all outward signs and manifestation 

 would indicate. The same iuditference is also exhibited by the male to all that may take ])lace of this character 

 outside of the boundary of his seraglio; but the moment the pups are inside the limits of his harem-ground, he is 

 a jealous and a fearless protector, vigilant and determined ; but if the little animals are careless enough to pass 

 beyond this boundary, then I can go up to them and carry them off before the eye of the old Turk without 

 receiving from him the slightest attention in their behalf — a curious guardian, forsooth! 



It is surprising to me how few of these young pups get crushed to death while the ponderous males are 

 floundering over them, engaged in fighting and quarreling among themselves. I have seen two bulls dash at each 

 other with all the energy of furious rage, meeting right in the midst of a small " pod " of forty or fifty pups, 

 tramp o\'er them with all their crushing weight, and bowling them out right and left in every direction by the 

 impetus of their movements, without injuring a single one, as fiir as I could see. Still, when we come to consider 

 the fact that, despite the great weight of the old males, their broad, flat flippers and yielding bodies may i)ress 

 down heavily on tiiese little fellows without actually breaking bones or mashing them out of shape, it seems 

 ipiestionable whether more than one per cent, of all the pups born each season on these great rookeries of the 

 Pribylov islands are destroyed in this manner on the breeding-grounds.* 



The vitality of the fur seal is simply astonishing. His physical organization passes beyond the fabled nine 

 lives of the cat. As a slight illustration of its tenure of life, I will mention the fact, that one morning the chief 

 came to me with a pup in his arms, which had just been born, and was still womb-moist, saying that the mother 

 had been killed at Tolstoi by accident, and he supposed that I would like to have a " choochiP'.t I took it up 



* Tho only damage which these little fellows have ui) here, is being canght by an October gale down at the surf-maigiu, when they 

 have not fairly learned to swim ; large numbers have been destroyed by sudden "nips" of this character. 

 t Si>ecimeu to stuff. 



