THE FUE SEAL: ATTITUDES AND COLORATION. 81 



their hoarse roaring and shrill, piping whistle never ceases, while their fat bodies writhe and swell 

 with exertion and rage ; furions lights gleam in their eyes ; their hair flies in the air, and their blood 

 streams down ; all combined, makes a picture so fierce and so strange that, from its nnexijected 

 position and its novelty, is perhaps one of the most extraordinary brutal conte ts man can 

 witness. 



In these battles of the Seals, the parties are always distinct ; the one is offensive, the other 

 defensive. If the latter proves the weater he withdraws from the position occupied, and is never 

 followed by his conqueror, who complacently throws up one of his hind flippers, fans himself, as it 

 were, to cool his fevered wrath and blood from the heat of the conflict, sinks into comparative quiet, 

 only uttering a peculiar chuckle of satisfaction or contempt, with a sharp eye open for the next 

 covetous bull or "See-catch.'" 



Attitudes and coloration of the Pur Seal. — The period occupied by the males in 

 taking and holding their positions on the rookery, offers a very favorable opportunity to study 

 them in the thousand and one different attitudes and postures assumed, between the two extremes 

 of desperate conflict and deep sleep — sleep so profound that one can, if he keeps to the leeward, 

 approach close enough, stepping softly, to pull the whiskers of any old male taking a nap on a 

 clear i>lace; but after the first touch to these moustaches, the trifler must jump with electrical 

 celerity back, if he has any regard for the sharp teeth and tremendous shaking which will surely 

 overtake him if he does not. The younger Seals sleep far more soundly than the old ones, and it is 

 a favorite pastime for the natives to surprise them in this manner — favorite, because it is attended 

 with no personal risk ; the little beasts, those amphibious sleepers, rise suddenly, and fairly shrink 

 to the earth, spitting and coughing their terror and confusion. 



The neck, chest, and shoulders of a fur-seal bull comprise more than two-thirds of his whole 

 weight; and in this long, thick neck, and the powerful muscles of the fore-limbs and shoulders, is 

 embodied the larger portion of his strength. When on land, with the fore hands he does all climb- 

 ing over the rocks and grassy hummocks back of the rookery, or shuffles his way over the smooth 

 parades ; the hind-feet being gathered up as useless trappings after every second step forward, 

 which we have described at the outset of this chapter. These anterior flippers are also the propel- 

 ling power when in water, the exclusive machinery with which they drive their rapid passage ; the 

 hinder ones floating behind like the steering sweep to a whale-boat, used evidently as rudders, or 

 as the tail of a bird is while its wings sustain and force its rapid flight. 



The covering to the body is composed of two coats, one being a short, crisp, glistening over- 

 hair, and the other a close, soft, elastic pelage, or fur, which gives the distinctive value to the pelt. 

 I can call it readily to the mind of my readers, when I say to them that the down and feathers on 

 the breast of a duck lie relatively as the fur and hair do upon the skin of the Seal. 



At this season of first "hauling up,"^ in the spring, the prevailing color of the bulls, after they 

 dry off and have been exposed to the weather, is a dark, dull brown, with a sprinkling in it of 

 lighter brown-black, and a number of hoary or grizzled gray coats peculiar to the very old males. 

 On the shoulders of all of them, that is, the adults, the over-hair is either a gray or rufous ocher, 

 or a very emphatic "pepper and salt"; this is called the "wig." The body-colors are most intense 

 and pronounced upon the back of the head, neck, and spine, fading down on the flanks lighter, to 

 much lighter ground on the abdomen ; still never white, or even a clean gray, so beautiful and 

 peculiar to them when young, and to the females. The skin of the muzzle and flippers is a dark 



' "See-catch," native name for the bulls on the rookeries, especially those which are able to maintain their position. 

 2 "Hauling up," a technical term, applied to the action of the Seals when they land from the surf and haul up or 

 drag themselves over the beach. It is expressive and appropriate, as are most of the sealing phrases. 



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