92 COUNTER-CASE OF GEE AT BRITAIN. 



animals, certain individuals are found to arrive long before 

 the mass of their kind in almost every year, while others, 

 either from individual eccentricity or because of age, weak- 

 ness, or wounds, are in a siuiilar manner left beliind. Such 

 "Strays" in " strays" should not, however, in any case, be regarded as 

 migration. iudicatiug the dates of tlie period of the arrival and de])ar- 

 xjnited States turcof the uiaiu body of auimals. The Tables quoted as 

 case,pp.385,386.^ppgj^^l^ (B) to the Ecport of the United States Commis- 

 sioners, and giving the tirst arrivals of seals at the Priby- 

 loff Islands for a number of years, show this general rule 

 in the case of the fur-seal: and, if tlie earliest dates of 

 arrival should be accepted as indicating the opening 

 106 of the periods of arrival of the seals as a whole, would 

 be entirely misleading. 



SEXES ARRIVE AND LEAVE AT DIFFERENT TIMES, THUS 

 AGGREGATE DATES DO NOT REPRESENT ACTUAL RES- 

 IDENCE. 



The subject is further complicated by the fact that seals 

 of different sexes and ages do not arrive simultaneously 

 at the breeding-islands or leave these islands at the same 

 times. Thus it becomes possible to make general state- 

 ments which, though in a measure based on fact, convey 

 no real idea of the average time spent by the seals upon 

 the land. For this reason it will be found that the partic- 

 ulars given in the United States Case as to the dates of 

 the arrival and departure of the various sexes and ages of 

 seals do not correspond witli the above-quoted general alle- 

 gations, though, even in these statements, extreme limits 

 rather than average ones are in most cases taken. 



PARTICULARS GIVEN IN UNITED STATES CASE DO NOT 

 CORRESPOND WITH QUOTED CONTENTIONS. 



caYr/i^ wl^''**'" T^"^. i* i^ stated in the United States Case that the bulls 



arrive in " the latter part of April or tirst few days of May," 



and begin to leave the islands about the 1st August, and 



Ibid., p. 112. "continue going till the early part of October." This, in 



isUnlia fur's ^4^^'^^^^ words, would make the stay of the bulls about the 



mnnths. islands from three to four months. 



ca^r, pp! lotfot' The cows, it is stated— 



begin to appear toward the latter part of May or Ist June; 



while — 



the great majority, however do not han] np until the latter part of 

 June; and the arrivals continue until the middle of July. 



Ibid., p. 120. They are stated to remain on the islands till about the 

 middle of I^ovember. Thus, as an extreme limit for the 



Cows, i to 5i stay of the cows, the above shows a period of four to five 

 months and a hair. 



Similarly the "bachelors," or young male seals are said 

 to— 



XTnited states i^egiu to arrive in the vicinity of the islands soon after the hulls have 

 ^^'^' *'■ ■ taken up their positions upon the rookeries, but the greater number 



appear toward the latter part of May. 



