Seal Domesticities 93 



Now the happy proprietor of a harem must keep close 

 and careful watch, less prowling Lotharios should steal 

 one of his hardly won wives, or lest any discontented 

 spouse should venture to creep away. But even the 

 tremendous endurance of the male Seal has its limits, 

 and it frequently happens that, exhausted by his priva- 

 tions and exertions, a husband will find some cunning 

 rival come in and eject him. Then there is nought 

 for him to do but to go to sea again and endeavour by 

 steady attention to hunting to make up for the stamina 

 he has dissipated in the late riots. 



Meanwhile, the baby Seals arrive. They receive 

 little attention from their mothers, who listlessly allow 

 them to gorge themselves on the rich milk and thrive 

 amazingly. As for the males, they take no notice of 

 the pups whatever, seem indeed to be unaware of their 

 presence. By-and-by the young Seal or floe-rat must 

 be taught to swim — another amazing thing about this 

 wonderfully interesting creature. All land animals, 

 except man, swim instinctively if flung into water even 

 when just bom. But the Seal, than whom no more 

 graceful and enduring swimmer lives in or out of the sea, 

 must needs learn laboriously how to comport himself in 

 the water. And his mother teaches him. Of course, 

 he is an apt learner, as all young animals are of what 

 their mother has to teach them. 



As he grows older he and his thousands of comrades 

 get away from the colony by themselves and play, 

 gambolhng about all day long, only journeying from 

 the playground to the sea and back. What they live 

 upon after they are weaned until the whole colony goes 

 to sea again is not known. Those that are killed and 

 examined never seem to have anything in their stomach 

 but stones. And it has been well established as a fact 

 that, upon the arrival of the colony at their ' rookeiy,' 



