206 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



The very large old ones never run away from a man or a crowd of men, but pre- 

 pare at once for battle. Nevertheless, I have seen whole herds put to flight if a man 

 whistle. The females flee in haste, and likewise whole droves of adult males, even 

 many thousands, are driven in headlong flight to the sea, if suddenly, when they feel 

 secure, they are attacked with a great noise. But when, as often, we drove many 

 thousands of them before us into the ocean, those that were swimming accompanied us 

 constantly as we walked along the shore, gazing in wonder upon their unusual guests. 



They swim so rapidly that in an hour they can easily swim two German miles. If 

 they are wounded at sea with a harpoon they draw the boat with the hunter after them 

 so swiftly that the boat seems to fly, and they often overturn the boat and drown the 

 hunter unless the steersman prevents it by watching and skillfully directing his 

 course; they swim with the back sloping, and the front flippers are never seen, but the 

 back ones sometimes project up from the water. On account of the open foramen they 

 stay a long time under water. But they afterwards come up to breathe, with their 

 strength much exhausted; they delight to swim around near the shore and swim now 

 prone and now on their backs, but not far under water, so that I was always able to 

 make out their course. They often raise their hind flippers out of the water. When 

 they have breathed enough, or when they first start into the water from the land, 

 they plunge into the water head first like a wheel, as do almost all the larger sea 

 beasts — the otter, the lion, the balaena orca, and the porpoise. 



When they climb a rock, they take hold of it with their front flippers as seals do, 

 and drag the rest of their body behind them, bending the back like a bow and holding 

 the head low, to give elasticity to the body. In swiftness they almost if not quite 

 excel the swiftest runner, and the females are especially fast. There is no doubt that 

 many of us would have been killed by them if their legs were worth as much on land 

 as they are in water. And, indeed, it is not wise to fight with them even in a large 

 level place, for there one can get away with difficulty. Steep places were always our 

 ' refuge of safety, because they can not climb up them. They sometimes laid siege to 

 me for more than six hours, and at length compelled me, at very great peril of my 

 lite, to ascend a precipice, and in that way to escape from the infuriated beasts. 



If I were required to state how many I saw on Bering Island I should truthfully 

 say that I could not guess — they were countless, they covered the whole shore. Not 

 infrequently they obliged me and my Cossack, in our rambles this way and that 

 through the entire island, to leave thfe shore and prosecute our journey with difficulty 

 over the tops of the hills. 



The sea otters are very much in fear of the sea bears, and very seldom come in 

 among them, and it is the same with the seals. But the sea lions live among them in 

 great herds and are much feared by them. They. always have the best places. The 

 sea bears do not like to stir up quarrels when the sea lions are present for fear they 

 have these savage beasts as umpires ; for they run up immediately, as I have sometimes 

 seen. So also they dare not try to prevent their females from playing with the sea lions. 



And, by the way, this is a curious fact, that the sea bears are not found every- 

 where on the shores of their islands, as are the sea cows, the seals, the otter, and the 

 sea lions, but only on the southern shore, which faces Kamchatka. The reason of this 

 is obvious — for they see this part of the island first when they come on their journey 

 eastward from Cape Kronotski. They are not found in the northern part unless they 

 have strayed there by mistake. 



