TAKEN IN THE STATE OF WASHINGTON. 359 



Coirimander Island on the Asiatic side. On the American side, some 

 of them travel as far sonth as Lower California, and on the Asiatic side 

 as far south as Japan and i^erhaps farther. On the American coast 

 they are found as early as January oft' southern Cal- 

 ifornia, in limited numbers, and are more plentiful ifol^Eoaar °^^^^" 

 further north later in the season. They gradually work 

 towards the north, and about March are "bunching" oft Grays Harbor 

 and the Columbia River, and are found in large numbers a little later 

 about Cape Flattery and Vancouver Island. They are found close in- 

 shore to 40 or 50 miles off. After June very few remain along the 

 coast. A few stragglers may be seen about that time ; the most of them 

 start in earnest for the rookeries about that time, in the Bering Sea. 

 The cows are at this time heavy with young, and are slow and sluggish. 



In May, the bull seals commence to haul up on the rookeries, and the 

 cows come three or four weeks later. The bulls choose 

 such ground as they mean to hold through the summer, cows"' '^^"^ ^""^ '^""^ 

 fight savagely, and the strongest wins. Each has his 

 own family, and should a stranger approach there is war. On the rook- 

 eries one may see all classes of seals apart from each 

 other, the bulls and breeding cows in one place and ^0^6^°^'"''^'*"' 

 the young in another. The pups are born on the rook- 

 eries, and remain with their mothers, living wholly upon their mother's 

 milk until they can go into the sea and care for them- g^^j^ feedincr 

 selves. There is nothing on the beach for the old ones 

 to eat, and they go several miles from the rookeries out to sea to 

 obtain food. When the pups are born they can not 

 swim and the mothers take them to the water's edge, .^P^ps and their bab- 

 where one can see thousands paddling and struggling in 

 the surf. The noise made by the mothers crying for their pups, and the 

 bleating of the pups in answer, make aconstant roar. The cow is 3 years 

 old before she bears young. The pups are about 45 days old before they 

 can go into the water, but they nurse the mother as long as they stay 

 on the island. They are called " black " and " gray" pups 5 black be- 

 fore they shed their first coat and gray afterwards. As they grow 

 older the gray turns darker, except upon the neck and head ; but tha 

 color of the hair does not affect the fur, which can be seen by parting 

 it. The thickness and length of the fur determines 

 the value of the skin. They live on fish and seaweed, 

 and if they are driven or hunted too hard on the islands are liable to 

 migrate to some other place. If they are managed right they may be 

 diiven like sheep along the beaches. They do not run fast on shore, 

 unless alarmed, when they give a man a good race to catch them. 



The people on the islands pick out the young males for killing. One 

 blow over the nose crushes the skull and kills them. -g..jj.^ 

 They are then skinned and the bodies are left on the ^ '"^' 

 field or eaten by the natives. Seal meat is very good eating, but rather 

 dry, as the fat must be all cut away to make it eatable. The seals are 

 found on St. Paul aiid St. George, and on Bering and 

 Copper islands in Bering Sea. They are also in small fo,^d^Jnifnd.^'' ^''^ 

 numbers on Robbm Island in the Okhotsk Sea. Sev- 

 eral years ago they were plentiful off Cape Horn, and about tw^enty- 

 five years back I saw some near Cape. Good Hope, and also off ISfew 

 Zealand; but whether they are to be found there now I do not know. 

 The best skins come from Bering Sea, and the farther north the better 

 the skins. When the seals are asleep on the water geaissiee in 

 they lie on their backs with the fore flippers sticking ^ ^ ^ eepmg. 



