THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 65 



Pelagic range op fur-seals for food. — During tbe winter solstice — between the lapse of the autumnal, 

 and the verging of the vernal equinoxes — in order to get this enormous food supply, the fur-seals are necessarily 

 obliged to disperse over a very large area of fishing ground, ranging throughout the North Pacitic, 5,000 miles 

 across between Japan and the straits of Fuca. In feeding, they are brought to the southward all this time; and, 

 as they go, they come more and more in contact with those natural enemies peculiar to the sea of these southern 

 latitudes, which are almost strangers and are really unknown to the waters of Bering sea; for I did not observe, 

 with the exception of ten or twelve perhaps, certainly no more, killer-whales,* a single marine disturbance, or 

 molestation, during the three seasons which I passed upon the islands, that could be regarded in tbe slightest 

 degree inimical to the peace and life of the Plnnipedia ; and thus, from my observation, I am led to believe that it 

 is not until they descend well to the south of the Aleutian islands, and in the Xorth Pacific, that they meet with 

 sharks to any extent, and are diminished by the butchery of killer- whales.t 



The young fur-seals going out to sea for the first time, and following in the wake of their elders, are the 

 clumsy members of the family. When they go to sleep on the surface of the water, they rest much sounder than 

 the others; and their alert and wary nature, which is handsomely developed ere they are two seasons old, is in its 

 infancy. Hence, I believe that vast numbers of them are easily captured by marine foes, as they are stuijidly 

 sleeping, or awkwardly fishing. 



Behavior op fur-seals in the waters around the islands. — In this connection I wish to record an 

 impression very strongly made upon my mind, in regard to their diverse behavior when out at sea, away from the 

 islands, and when congregated thereon. As I have plainly exhibited in the foregoing chapter, they are practically 

 without fear of man when he visits them on the land of their birth and recreation ; but the same seal that noticed 

 you with quiet iudifierence at St. Paul, in June and July, and the rest of the season while he was there, or gamboled 

 around your boat when you rowed from the ship to shore, as a dog will play about your horses when you drive 

 from the gate to the house, that same seal, when you meet him in one of the passes of the Aleutian chain, 100 or 

 200 miles away from here, as the case may be, or to the southward of that archipelago, is the shiest and wariest 

 creature your ingenuity can define. Happy are you in getting but a single glimpse of him, first ; you will never 

 see him after, until he hauls out, and winks and blinks across Lukannon sands.f 



But the companionship and the exceeding number of the seals, when assembled together annuallj', makes them 

 bold ; largely due, ])erhaps, to their flue instinctive understanding, dating, probably, back many years, seeming to 

 know that man, after all, is not wantonly destroying them; and what he takes, he only takes from the ravenous 

 maw of the killer-whale or the saw-tipped teeth of the Japan shark. As they sleep in the water, off the straits of 

 Fuca, and the northwest coast as far as Dixon's sound, the Indians, belonging to that region, surprise them with 

 spears and rifle, capturing quite a number every year, chiefly pups and yearlings. 



I must not be understood as saying tliat fish alone constitute the diet of the Pribylov pinnipeds; I know that they feed, to a limited 

 extent, upon crustaceans and upon the squid (Loli/jo), also, eating tender algoid sprouts; I believe that the pup-seals live for the first five 

 or six mouths at sea largely, if not -wholly, upon crustaceans and squids; they are not agile enough, in my opinion, to lish successfully in 

 any great degree, wheu they first depart from the rookeries. 



*But I did observe a very striking exhibition, however, of this character one afternoon while looking over Lukannon bay. I saw a 

 " killer" chasing the alert "hoUuschickie" out beyond the breakers, when suddenly, in an instant, the cruel cetacean was turned toward 

 the beach in hot pursuit, and in less time than this is read the ugly brute was high and dry upon the sands. The natives were called, 

 and a great feast was in prospect when I left the carcass. 



But this was the only instance of the orca in pursuit of seals that came directly under my observation ; hence, though it does 

 undoubtedly capture a few here every year, yet it is an insignificant cause of destruction, on account of its rarity. 



tin the stomach of one of these animals, year before last, 14 small harp-seals were found. — Michael Carroll's Ileport of Seal and 

 Heiring Fisheries of Newfoundland. 



tWhen fur-seals were noticed, hy myself, far away from these islands, at sea, I observed that then they were as shy and as wary as 

 the most timorous .animal which, in dreading man's proximity, could be — sinking instantly on apprehending the apiiroach or presence of 

 the ship, seldom to reappear to my gaze. But, when gathered in such immeuse numbers at the Pribylov islands, they are suddenly 

 metamorphosed into creatures wholly indifterent to my person. It must cause a very curious sentiment in the mind of him who comes for 

 the first time, during the summer season, to the island of St. Paul; where, when the landing boat or lighter carries him ashore from the 

 vessel, the whole short marine journey is enlivened by the gambols and aquatic evolutions of fur-seal convoys to the "bidarrah," which 

 sport joyously and fearlessly round and round his craft, as she is rowed lustily ahead by the natives; the fur-seals, then, of all classes, 

 "hoUuschickie" principally, pop their dark heads up out of the sea, rising neck and shoulders erect above the surface, to peer and ogle at 

 him and at his boat, diving quickly to reappear just ahead or right behind, hardly beyond striking distance from the oars; these 

 gymnastics of Callorhinus are not wholly performed thus in silence, for it usually snorts and chuckles with hearty reiteration. 



The sea-lions up here also manifest much the same marine interest, and gives the voyager an exhibition quite similar to the cme which 

 I have just spoken of, when a small boat is rowed in the neighborhood of its shore rookery; it is not, however, so bold, confident, and 

 social as the fur-seal under the circumstances, and utters only a short, stifled growl of surprise, perh.aps; its mobility, however, of 

 vocalization is sadly deficient when compared with the scope and compass of its valuable relative's polyglottis. 



The hair-seals {Phoca i-itulina) around these islands never approached our boats in this manner, and I seldom caught more than a 

 furtive glimpse of their short, bull-dog heads when traversing the coast by water. 



The walrus (Rosmartis obesus) also, like Phoca viiidina, gave undoubted evidence of sore alarm over the presence of my boat and crew 

 anywhere near its proximity iu similar situations, only showing itself once or twice, perhaps, at a safe distance by elevating nothing but 

 the extreme tip of its muzzle and its bleared, popping eyes above the water; it uttered no sound except a dull, muffled grunt, or else sn 

 choking, gurgliug bellow. 



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