EFFECT OF BLOOD ON SEALS. 71 



below. The neighboring seals immediately started to fallow, and before the natives 

 could turn them back several had gone headlong after their leader, heedless of the 

 fact that the way was open in another direction. 



Nothing, perhaps, shows the low grade of the seal's intellect and the inability to 

 think for themselves so well as their behavior during the drives and on the killing 

 grounds, and it was a constant source of wonderment to see 500 or 1,000 seals shufHing 

 along, guided and controlled by at the most five men. 



It is not docility which keeps the long procession together, but gregariousness,and 

 the fear of being left behind. A single yearling may delay a killing for five minutes, 

 snapping, snarling, and charging at the skinners and killers, but on the drive the idea 

 of escape never occurs to a seal, for all his energies are devoted to keeping up with the 

 others. On August 26 two old bulls were killed for specimens, and in order to save 

 the labor of "backing" their skins and skeletons to the village, the entire lot then on 

 Zoltoi Bluffs were driven by Judge Crowley and the ever-ready Jake, with a little 

 assistance from myself. There were 50 old bulls, 50 half bulls, and 100 bachelors of 

 assorted sizes, and it was an astonishing sight to see all these huge brutes fleeing 

 from three men, when any one bull could have driven the drivers, and would have done 

 so a month previously. But a mouth previous the breeding instinct was predominant 

 to the exclusion of all others, and not only was fear banished, but hunger and fatigue 

 were unheeded. 



The gregarious nature of the seals was curiously illustrated by their disposition 

 about Hutchiusons Hill, in August, or after the rookeries had expanded and the seals 

 retired far from the water. While there was ample room for ten times the number 

 of seals present to sprawl out in comfort, they were gathered into numerous dense 

 masses with wide stretches of bare ground in which the Burgomaster gulls walked up 

 and dowuj, picking at the eyes of dead pups. 



The smell of blood, particularly of that of their own species, inspires fear or anger 

 in most animals, since they associate its presence with danger tq themselves or others, 

 but with the fur seals it seems to do neither, and the animals turned loose from a 

 killing will trample over the bodies of the slain and pause to rest 50 or 100 

 yards away, with their flippers wet with the blood of their comrades.' It frequently 

 happened while dissecting pups on the rookeries " that the bulls, after all was quiet, 

 approached very closely, sometimes a little too close for comfort, and on one or two 

 occasions dissected pup carcasses were thrown at them, both to drive the bulls away 

 and to see what the effect would be. In no instance did the body of a pup have any 

 more effect than a pebble or a bit of wood, the bull sniffed at the one just as he did at the 

 other, but so long as the blood was not his own it was a matter of little consequence. 



Even had the blood come from himself it is doubtful if the bull's behavior would 

 have been different, for not one of Cooper's Indians could be more indifferent to pain 

 than the whole tribe of fur seals — bulls, cows, and pups. The bulls give and receive 

 the most savage bites without flinching, and cows do not show the least sign of pain 

 when pulled about and torn by their lords and masters, and on no occasion was any 



' It is quite likely that this is due to the incessant fighting among males and mauling of the 

 females by the bulls, wounds bieiug so numerous and blood so freely spilled that the seals are 

 accustomed to it. 



^ It must be borne in mind that this was after the breaking up of the harems, when seals of all 

 kinds were more or less intermingled, and many bulls were roaming around looking for odd cows. 



