136 ALASKA. 



most vehemently. The cows, however, soon got away from 

 him; but he still stood his ground, making little charges on me 

 of 10 or 15 feet in a succession of gallops or lunges, spitting 

 furiously, and then retreating to the old position, back of which 

 he would not go, fully resolved to hold his own or die iu the 

 attempt. 



This courage is all the more noteworthy from the fact that, 

 in regard to man, it is invariablj' of a defensive character. 

 The seal, if it makes you turn when you attack it, never fol- 

 lows you much farther than the boundary of its station, and 

 no aggravation will compel it to become offensive, as far as I 

 have been able to observe. 



The cows, during the whole season, do great credit to their 

 amiable expression by their manner and behavior on the rook- 

 ery ; never fight or quarrel one with another, and never or sel- 

 dom utter a cry of pain or rage when they are roughly handled 

 by the bulls, who frequently get a cow between them and tear 

 the skin from her back, cutting deep gashes into it, as they 

 snatch her from mouth to mouth. These wounds, however, 

 heal rapidly, and exhibit no traces the next year. 



The cows, like the bulls, vary much in weight. Two were 

 taken from the rookery nearest Saint Paul's Village, after they 

 had been delivered of their young, and the respective weights 

 were 56 and 101 pounds, the former being about three or four 

 years old, and the latter over six. They both were fat and in 

 excellent condition. 



It is quite out of the question to give a fair idea of the posi- 

 tions in which the seals rest when on land. They may be 

 said to assume every jiossible attitude which a flexible body can 

 be i)ut into. One favorite position, especially with the cows, is 

 to perch upon a point or top of some rock and throw their 

 heads back upon their shoulders, with the nose held aloft, then, 

 closing their eyes, take short naps without changing, now and 

 then gently fanning with one or the other of the long, slender 

 hind flippers; another, and the most common, is to curl them- 

 selves .up, just as a dog does on a hearth-rug, bringing the tail 

 and the nose close together. They also stretch out, laying the 

 head straight with the body, and sleep for an hour or two with- 

 out moving, holding one of the hinder flippers up all the time, 

 now and then gently waving it, the eyes being tightly closed. 



The sleep of the fur-seal, from the old bull to the young pup, 

 is always accompanied by a nervous, muscular twitching and 



