74 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 
BREEDING GROUNDS. 
The seals occupy for their breeding places narrow bowlder beaches at the foot 
of high cliffs and extend their harems into the crevasses and channels in the cliffs 
through which streams flow. In places their breeding grounds extend inland one or 
two hundred yards. The animals clamber over the rocks, reaching places inaccessible 
toman. They have good powers of locomotion, and the young walk on all fours. 
In climatic conditions the home of the southern fur seals resembles that of 
the northern, though there is not the same marked difference between summer and 
winter. Doubtless there is no migration because no necessity for it. An average 
annual temperature of from 40° to 45° is recorded, which is about the summer 
climate of the Pribilof Islands. The sky is almost constantly overcast. Rain falls 
daily. 
The fur seals of the south are gregarious and herd closely crowded on their 
rookery grounds, class by class. The young males are forced to withdraw by them- 
selves in the breeding season. 
THE FIGHTING OF THE BULLS. 
The bulls struggle with one another for possession of the cows as they land. 
Each harem has from fifteen to twenty cows. These are jealously guarded and are 
not permitted to leave. The bulls fight valiantly against intrusion, whether by one 
of their own number or by man. 
There is the same disparity between the males and females. The former is 
recorded as 6 to 7 feet long, the latter about 4, with a corresponding difference in 
weight. 
They are found sleeping and playing in the water, just as the fur seals of the 
north are, and it is reported easy to approach and spear them. 
DIFFERENCE IN TIME OF BIRTH. 
It may be worthy to note in this connection that Capt. W. L. Noyes, who visited 
the Galapagos Islands during the summer of 1897, found cows with pups already 
born in July on Wenman Island, just north of the equator, whereas cows on other 
islands of the same group to the south of the equator, killed in September, contained 
pups still unborn and apparently not to be born until October or November. The 
seals of these islands are reported by others to bring forth their young at all seasons. 
There is, however, no essential difference in the habits of the seals of the two 
hemispheres. The differences in date of the stagy season and of the breeding season 
are matters dependent upon the climate. The absence of migration periods so marked 
as in the case of the northern seals is due to the absence of such harsh conditions as 
the winter of the north exhibits. 
