80 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



kingdom, the survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence ; for these bulls, by their own 

 evolution, permit only the strongest and most perfect of their kind to stamp their impress on the 

 coming generations. ' 



From the time of the first arrival in May up to the beginning of June, or as late as the middle 

 of that month, if the weather be clear, is an interval in which everything seems quiet. Very few 

 Seals are added to the pioneers that have landed, as we have described. By the 1st of June, how- 

 ever, sometimes a little before, and never much later, the seal-weather— the foggy, humid, oozy 

 damp of summer— sets in ; and with it, as the gray banks roll up and shroud the islands, the bull 

 Seals swarm from the depths by hundreds and thousands, and locate themselves in advantageous 

 positions for the reception of the females, which are generally three weeks or a month later than 

 this date in arrival. 



Pre-emption of the rookeries: Battles of the Seals. — The labor of locating and 

 maintaining a position on the rookery is really a terribly serious business for those bulls which 

 come in last; and it is so all the time to those males that occupy the water-line of the breeding- 

 grounds. A constantly sustained fight between the newcomers and the occupants goes on 

 morning, noon, and night, without cessation, frequently resulting in death to one or even both of 

 the combatants. 



It appears, from my survey of these breeding-grounds, that a well-understood principle exists 

 among the able-bodied bulls, to wit: that each one shall remain undisturbed on his ground, which 

 is usually about six to eight feet square, provided that at the start, and from that time until the 

 arrival of the females, he is strong enough to hold this ground against all comers; inasmuch as the 

 crowding in of the fresh arrivals often causes the removal of those which, though equally able- 

 bodied at first, have exhausted themselves by fighting earlier and constantly, they are finally 

 driven by these fresher animals back farther and higher up on the rookery, and sometimes off 

 altogether. 



Many of these bulls exhibit wonderful strength and desperate courage. 1 marked one veteran 

 at Gorbatch, who was the first to take up his position early in May, and that position, as usual, 

 directly at the water-line. This male Seal had fought at least forty or fifty desperate battles, and 

 fought off his assailants every time — perhaps nearly as many different Seals which coveted his 

 position — and when the fighting season was over (after the cows are mostly all hauled up), I saw 

 him still there, covered with scars and frightfully gashed; raw, festering, and bloody, one eye 

 gouged out, but lording it bravely over his harem of fifteen or twenty females, who were all 

 huddled together on the same spot of his first location and around him. 



This fighting between the old and adult males (for none others fight) is mostly, or rather entirely, 

 done with the mouth. The opponents seize one another with their teeth, and then clenching their 

 jaws, nothing but the sheer strength of the one and the other tugging to escape can shake them 

 loose, and that effort invariably leaves an ugly wound, the sharp canines tearing out deep gutters 

 in the skin and furrows in the blubber, or shredding the flippers into ribbon-strips. 



They usually approach each other with comically averted heads, just as though they were 

 ashamed of the rumpus which they were determined to precipitate. When they get near enough 

 to reach one another they enter upon the repetition of many feints or passes, before either one or 

 the other takes the initiative by gripping. The heads are darted out and back as quick as a flash; 



'A trained observer, Kumlien, who passed the winter of 1877-'78 in Cumherland Sound, and, spealiiug of this 

 feature in the Ringed Seal ( Phoea foetida), says, " There is usually but one young at a birth ; still twins are not of rare 

 occurrence, and one instance came under my observation where there were triplets ; but they were small, and two of 

 them probably would not have lived had they been born." 



