June 29, 1 882 J 



NA TURE 



201 



way back, the little cows have a hard time of it at the 

 first and when they are few, for no sooner is one pretty 

 creature fairly estab.ished in the station of male number 

 one, who has got her there, than he perhaps sees another 

 of her style in the water from whence she has come, and 

 he devotes himself to coaxing the later arrival by the same 

 winning methods so successful before ; whereupon bull 

 number two, one station in the rear, observing bull number 

 one to be off guard, reaches out with his long, strong 

 neck, picks up the passive cow by the scruff of her neck, 

 just as a cat docs a kitten, and deposits her upon his 

 ground ; and this will happen again and again until the 

 little cow will finally find herself several stations back. 

 Her last lord not being exposed to the same temptations 

 as lie on the water level, gives her such care that not 

 only could she not leave if she wished, but no other bull 

 gets a chance of seizing her. When the females have all 

 landed and the harems are full, it would seem that those 

 nearest the water may contain on an average from fifteen 

 to twenty females, those in the rear from five to twelve. 

 The courage of the fur seal is of the highest order. As 

 regards man, it is invariably of a defensive character. 

 Though always on the defensive, he never retreats, but he 

 will not attack ; the cows, however, are easily frightened 

 and are timorous. Shortly after the females are landed, 

 the young are born ; they are tor the first three months 

 of a jet black colour, are about fourteen inches long, and 

 weigh about four pounds. It would seem that they are 

 nursed only every second day, the mothers going off to 

 the fish grounds to get a supply of food, but they may 

 also return to suckle their young at night. When return- 

 ing in the daytime, each mother at once recognises her 

 own young, though there may be thousands upon 

 thouands all together blaating at once. Before entering 

 into such a crowd, the mother stops and calls out, just as 

 a sheep does for a lamp, and out of all the din she then 

 recognises her offspring's voice, and makes direct for it ; 

 but it would seem that the young ones do not olten know 

 their own mothers. 



Early in August the young seals, now about six weeks 

 old, are taught to swim. If dropped into deep water 

 about this period dow-n goes their bullet-like head, and 

 they are drowned ; at first they try their skill in the shallow 

 pools, for a week or two they only flounder about, thrash- 

 ing the water as little dogs will do. When for the first 

 time they are well launched out they soon turn to the 

 shore, and if by some receding wave they should be left 

 high and dry, they will crawl away for a little distance 

 and, quite exhausted, will coil themselves up to take a 

 short recuperative nap, and then to the swimming lesson 

 again. Once boldly swimming they seem to fairly revel 

 in it. The parents do not in the slightest degree supervise 

 or direct the young in swimming. The young shed their 

 black coat about the middle of October ; the second or 

 sea-going jacket, does not at first vary in colour between 

 the sexes, nor does a pronounced difference take place 

 until after the third year. The females bear their first 

 young when they are three years old, and the period of 

 gestation lacks only a few days of a year. 



The great herds of "bachelor" seals, numbering per- 

 haps one-third to one-half of the whole aggregate of the 

 5,000,000 seals known to the Pribylov group, are never 

 allowed under the pain of death to put their flippers on 

 or near the rookeries. These are the seals of most im- 

 portance to commerce, for with the exception of a few 

 thousand young ones and an odd old male, these are the 

 only ones slaughtered for their hides. They locate them 

 in immense tracts, mostly away from the rookeries, but 

 sometimes the road to these will pass along or through a 

 rookery, where, as long as the bachelors keep to the main 

 road, they are never molested ; but if they pry about, it is 

 all over with them, for they are literally torn to pieces. 

 These bachelors are wonderfully gentle, but they are pos- 

 sibly the most restless animals in creation, they never 



seem quiet, not even in their sleep, they do not fast, as 

 they constantly leive the land for the sea, though this at 

 irregular periods depending a good deal on the weather ; 

 on land they sport and roll about as if in perfect enjoy- 

 ment, curling and uncurling themselves, in fact they seem 

 to be surcharged with a quite joyous life, but when in 

 play they never grovel or bite or seem to show even an 

 angry feeling. It is we have seen very different with 

 them when they are a little older and begin to take upon 

 themselves the cares of a harem. These seals pass a 

 deal of their time in the water, where their gambols are 

 truly wonderful, and the time they can remain underwater 

 is, Mr. Elliott writes, " past belief." They are readily, when 

 on land, classified as to age. They shed their fur and 

 hair during August. Passing over a detailed and well 

 illustrated account of the various rookeries, carefully cal- 

 culated as containing some 3,193,042 breeding seals and 

 their young in 1873, and of non-breeding seals over 

 1,500,000, and the speculations as to the vast amount 

 of fish consumed by this immense army, we have to 

 notice briefly the chapter on the taking of the seals. 

 Except for food, none but the "bachelors" are slaughtered 

 when their furs are in good trim : the natives get between 

 a herd and the sea, and then gently drive it up to a 

 slaughtering station. In cool and moist weather the 

 seals can be safely moved along at the rate of half 

 a mile an hour ; on firm grassy ground three or 

 four men can secure and guide as many as a 

 thousand seals at the same time. They are per- 

 mitted frequently to halt, rest, and cool, as over heat- 

 ing injures their fur, and so on they go to death, and to 

 supply with their hides the markets of the world. They 

 never show tight, and are as docile as a flock of sheep ; 

 the bull seals on the contrary will fight rather than endure 

 the panting torture of travel, so that if any of them get 

 mixed up with a herd of bachelors they are easily let drop 

 out ; their fur is of no value. On arriving at the slaughter 

 places the herd is allowed to cool, and then the killing 

 begins ; the labour of skinning is severe and trying even 

 to experts ; the hide has to be taken off at once. The 

 skins are taken from the field to the salt-house, where 

 they stay for two or three weeks, being pickled ; after this 

 they are taken and rolled into bundles of two skins in 

 each package, with the hairy sides out and lightly corded. 

 In this state they go by steamer to San Francisco, where 

 they are counted for the tax, and from thence they are 

 shipped to London. 



In a series of illustrative and supplemental notes to this 

 volume, there are a number of very interesting details as 

 to the Russian Seal Islands ; as to the Fauna and Flora 

 of the Priblyov Group ; a digest of the data in regard to 

 the fur seal rookeries of the South Atlantic and Pacific, 

 and the number of skins taken therefrom. There is a 

 translation of Veniaminov's account of the Russian seal 

 industry at the Priblyovs, 1842 ; a meteorological abstract 

 for the months from September, 1872, to April, 1873, 

 which was an unusually severe winter ; andahistory of the 

 organisation and regulations of the Alaskan Commercial 

 Company, under whose excellent management the seal- 

 skin trade is now carried on. In concluding a necessarily 

 somewhat brief notice of this excellent monograph, we 

 would congratulate Mr Commissioner Spencer Baird on 

 being the means of obtaining for men of science and of 

 commerce so much valuable information, and we can 

 scarcely give too much praise to Mr. Henry M. Elliott 

 for his most artistic and praiseworthy history of the most 

 interesting of all Pinnipeds. 



A DYNAMOMETER FOR ALTERNATING 

 CURRENTS OF MODERATE STRENGTH 



THE object of this instrument, which I had the pleasure 

 of bringing before the Physical Society at their 

 Oxford meeting, is chiefly medical. But it occurred to 



