THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 39 



into my laboratory, and fimling that it could walk about and make a great noise, I attempted to feed it, with the - 

 idea of haviug a comfortable subject to my pencil, for life study, of the young in the varied attitudes of sleep aud 

 motion. It refused everything that I could summon to its attention as food; and, alternately sleeping and walking, 

 in its clumsy fashion, about the floor, it actually lived nine days — spending the half of every day iu floundering 

 over the floor, accomi)anying all movement with a persistent, hoarse, blaatingcry — and I do not believe it ever had 

 a single drop of its mother's milk. 



In the pup, the head is the only dispro])ortionate feature at birth, when it is compared with the adult form ; the 

 neck being idso relatively shorter and thicker. The eye is large, round and full, but almost a " navy blue " at times, 

 it soon changes into the blue-black of adolescence. 



The females appear to go to and come from the water to feed and bathe, quite frequently, after bearing their 

 young, and the immediate subsequent coitus \\ith the male; and usually return to the spot or its immediate 

 neighborhood, where they leave their pups, crying out foi' them, and recognizing the individual replies, though ten 

 thousand around, all together, should blaat at once. They quickly single out their own and nurse them. It would 

 certainly be a very unfortunate matter if the mothers could not identify their young by sound, since their pups get 

 together like a grtat swarm of bees, and spread out upou the ground iu what the sealers call " pods", or clustered 

 groups, whUe they are young and not very large ; but from the middle or end of September, until they leave the 

 islands for the dangers of the great Pacific, in the winter, along by the first of November, they gather in this 

 manner, sleeping and frollickiug by tens of thousands, bunched together at various places all over the islands 

 contiguous to the breeding-grounds, and right on them. A mother comes n[) from the sea, whither she has been to 

 Avash, and perhaps to feed, for the last day or two, feeling her way along to about where she thinks her pup should 

 l)e — at least where she left it last — but perhaps she misses it, and finds instead a swarm of pups in which it has been 

 incorporated, owing to its great fondness for society. The mother, without first entering into the crowd of thousands, 

 calls out just as a sheep does for a lamb ; and, out of all the din she — if not at first, at the end of a few trials — 

 recognizes the voice of her offspring, and then advances, striking out right and left, toward the position from which 

 it replies. But if the pup ha[)peus at this time to be asleep, it gives, of course, no response, even though it were 

 close by; in the event of this silence the cow, after calling for a time without being answered, curls herself up aud 

 takes a nap, or lazily basks, to be usually more successful, or wholly so, when she calls again. 



The pups themselves do not know their own mothers — a fact which I ascertained by careful observation — but 

 they are so constituted that they incessantly cry out at short intervals during the whole time they are awake, and iu 

 this way the mother can pick out from the monotonous blaating of thousands of pups, her own, and she will not 

 jiermit any other to suckle it; but the "kotickie" themselves attempt to nose around every seal-mother that comes 

 in contact with Ihem. (See note, 39, I.) ■ • . 



Disorganization of the rookeries. — Between the end of July and the 5th or 8th of August of every year, 

 the rookeries are completely changed in appearance; the systematic and regular disposition of the families or harems 

 over the whole extent of breeding- ground has disappeared ; all that clock-work order which has heretofore existed 

 seems to be broken up. The breeding-season over, those bulls which have lield their positions since the first of May 

 leave, most of them thin in flesh and weak, and of their number a very large proi^artion do not come out again on 

 land during the season ; but such as are seen at the end of October and November, are in good flesh. They have a 

 new coat ol^rich, dark, grey-brown hair and fur, with gray or grayish ocher '■ wigs" of longer hair over the shoulders, 

 forming a fresh, strong contrast to the dull, rusty, brown and umber dress in which they ai)peared to us during the 

 summer, and which they had begun to shed about the first of August, in common with the females and the 

 "holluschickie". After these males leave, at the close of their season's work and of the rutting for the year, those 

 of them that happen to return to the land iu any event do not come back until the end of September, and do not 

 haul upon tlie rookery-grounds again. As a rule they ju-efer to herd together, like the younger males, upon the sand- 

 beaches and rocky points close to the water. 



The cows and pups, together with those bulls which we have noticed in waiting in the rear of the rookeries, 

 and which have been in retirement throughout the whole of the breeding-season, now take possession, iu a very 

 disorderly nmnner, of the rookeries. Thei'e come, also, a large number of young, three, four, aud five-year old 

 males, which have been prevented by the menacing threats of the older, stronger bulls, from landing among the 

 females during the rutting-season. 



Before the middle of August three-fourths, at least, of the cows at this date are off in the water, only coming 

 ashore at irregular intervals to nurse and look after their pups a short time. They presented to my eye, from the 

 summits of the blufis round about, a picture more suggestive than anything I have ever seen presented by animal 

 life, of entire comfort and enjoyment. Here, just out and beyond the breaking of the rollers, they idly lie on the 

 rocks or sand-beaches, ever and anon turning over and over, scratching their backs and sides with their fore- -and 

 hind-flippers. The seals on the breeding-ground ap^iear to get very lousy. (See note, 39, K.) 



Mangy cows and pups. — The frecpient winds and showers drive and sjtatter sand into their fur and eyes, 

 often making the latter quite sore. This occurs when they are obliged to leave the rocky rookeries and follow their 

 pups out over the sand-ridges and flats, to which they always have a natural aversion. On the haulinggrounda 



