ALASKA. 143 



this month and early in August, and that it is confined en- 

 tirely to the laud. 



Fifth. That the cows bear their first young when three years 

 of age. 



Sixth. That the cows are limited to a single pup each, as a 

 rule, in bearing, and this is born soon after landing ; no excep- 

 tion has thus far been witnessed. 



Seventh. That the bulls who have held the harems leave for 

 the water in a straggling manner at the close of the rutting- 

 season, greatly emaciated, not returning, if at all, until six or 

 seven weeks have elapsed, and that the regular systematic dis- 

 tribution of families over the rookeries is at an end lor the season, 

 a general medley of young bulls now free to come up from the 

 water, old males who have not been on seraglio duty, cows, and 

 an immense majority of pups, since only about 25 per cent, 

 of their mothers are out of the water at a time. 



The rookeries lose their compactness and definite boundaries 

 by the 2oth to 28th July, when the pups begin to haul back and 

 to the right and left in small squads at first, but as the season 

 goes on, by the 18th August, they swarm over three and four 

 times the area occupied by them when born on the rookeries. 

 The system of family arrangement and definite compactness of 

 the breeding-classes begins at this date to break up. 



Eighth. That by the 8th or 10th of August the pnps born 

 nearest the water begin to learn to swim, and by the 15th or 

 20th of September they are all familiar more or less with it. 



Ninth. That by the middle of September the rookeries are 

 entirely broken up, only confused, straggling bands of cows, 

 young bachelors, pups, and small squads of old bulls, crossing 

 and recrossing the ground in an aimless, listless manner; the 

 season is over, but many of these seals do not leave these 

 grounds until driven off by snow and ice, as late as the end of 

 December and 12th of January. 



This recapitulation is the sum and substance of my observa- 

 tions on the rookeries, and I will now turn to the consideration 

 of the 



upon which the yearlings and almost all the males under six 

 years come out from the sea in squads from a hundred to a 

 thousand, and, later in the season, by hundreds of thousands, 



