352 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PEIBILOF ISLANDS. 



AEDIGXJBN. 



The slide shows continual change. There are 58 cows up on the flat where the 

 harems of B and G were located. Probably 35 of this number were in B's harem, but 

 they stampede by way of C's harem, many of them going down over the cliff, but some 

 of them almost immediately returning. On account of the stampede of the cows to 

 the harems below it is difficult to determine the status of harems D, E, P, and Gr. 



A young 6-year-old bull (Z), noted yesterday as trying to locate himself in the 

 slide, is now up above D and seems very active. He greatly annoys the cows trying 

 to return to harein 0, dragging them back down the slide as they climb the slippery 

 rocks. One cow has a particularly hard time. She bites him severely in the throat 

 and on the back. The other bulls do not seem much inclined to tackle him. They are 

 too lazy now. 



A is still under the cliff in his position, but has 10 cows. One gets away and is 

 taken up by an idle bull above. He keeps the cow for a few minutes in the position 

 formerly occupied by X. X has left his place and lies by the rock where Y used to 

 be. Y is down by the brow of the cliff, a little farther along than the jiosition 

 occupied by an idle hull, which has kept his j)osition from the beginning. 



In the harems now controlled by B there is a little brown animal, very small. She 

 looks very much like what one would expect a virgin cow to be. 



STAMPEDES. 



The question of the stampeding of harems and consecjuent injury to the female 

 herd seems an absurdity. It frequently becomes necessary to go very close to the 

 harems in order to get to desirable observation points. The cows show evidence of 

 fright, but are, for the most part, held in check by the bulls, and as soon as the 

 intruder has passed or comes to rest the seals settle down as if nothing had happened. 

 If the fright is so great, as sometimes happens in these days since the harem system 

 has relaxed, as to cause the cows to break away to the water, they are invariably 

 found back in their jtlaces within a few hours, perhaps within a few minutes. 



The killable .seals do not come near the rookeries. There is a regularly graded 

 buffer of idle and half-idle bulls on the water front, in the rear, and at each flank, 

 which effectually prevents the crowding of the bachelors on the harem. Unfortunate 

 individuals, impelled by fright, occasionally try to escape through the harems to the 

 sea. But the injury is to the bachelor concerned and no general stampede can result. 

 It certainly is not possible to-day for the bachelors to get near enough the harems to 

 occasion any danger of stampeding the cows in getting them, and there is no reason 

 to suppose that conditions are essentially different this year from what they have been 

 in the past. It is generally conceded that there has always been a fringe of idle bulls 

 about the rookeries, and the bachelors have been taken for years from their present 

 hauling grounds, which are wholly distinct from the breeding grounds. 



Later in the season a few stray cows whose pups are dead may take up with 

 young bulls away from the rookeries proper. These may occasionally get into a drive. 

 One such female appeared in the drive from Zoltoi on the 25th instant. But it is not 

 likely that such cases occur frequently, never early in the season. A cow so driven is 

 not hurt in the least. The cow from Zoltoi was found at a distance from the rookery. 

 She was herding with the bachelors, probably because she had lost her pup. 



