506 WILD ANIMALS. 



"Since the ' hoUuscliickie ' (Russian for baolielors) are not 

 permitted by their own kind to land on the rookeries and stop 

 there, they have the choice of two methods of locating, one of 

 which allows them to rest in the rear of the rookeries, and the 

 other on the free beaches. The most notable illustration of the 

 former can be witnessed on Reef Point, where a pathway is left for 

 their ingress and egress through a rookery — a path left by common 

 consent, as it were, between the harems. On these trails of 

 passage they come and go in steady files all day and all night 

 during the season, unmolested by the jealous bulls which guard 

 the seraglios on either side as they travel ; all peace and comfort 

 to the young seal if he minds his business and keeps straight on, 

 up or down, without stopping to nose about right or left ; all woe 

 and desolation to him, however, if he does not, for in that event 

 he will be literally torn in bloody gripping, from limb to limb, 

 by the vigilant old ' see-catchie.' " 



About the end of July, or the first week in August, the dis- 

 organization of the rookeries begins. The whole place has a 

 changed appearance. The regular disposition of the families or 

 harems has disappeared, and the clockwork order which has here- 

 tofore existed becomes broken up. The bulls leave, and the 

 majority of the cows also take to the water, only coming ashore 

 again to nurse and look after the pups for a short time longer. 

 The bachelors, who have been kept in the background hitherto, 

 now come forward, and, in a very disorderly manner, take 

 possession of the rookeries. By the end of October, with but few 

 exceptions, the whole body of seals desert the islands and migrate 

 southward. 



An extraordinary feature about these annual family gatherings 

 is, that during the three or four months they are assembled together, 

 the bull animals have existed without food of any kind, or everi 

 water. The females go to and come from the sea to feed 

 and bathe quite frequently, so do the bachelors, and they retain 

 their sleek, plump forms in consequence. But the bulls, when 

 they first leave their post, which they have not quitted for a single 

 moment, night or day, since they landed in May, and gently slip 

 off shore to obtain their first meal, are but the bony shadows of 



