THE FUE SEAL: MAIfGINESS. 93 



most trenchant and penetrating cross-questioning of the natives, also, failed to give me any history 

 or evidence of an epidemic in the past. 



Hospitals. — The observer will, however, notice every summer, gathered in melancholy squads 

 of a dozen to one hundred or so, scattered along the coast where the healthy Seals never go, those 

 sick and disabled bulls which have, in the earlier part of the season, been either internally injured 

 or dreadfully scarred by the teeth of their opponents in lighting. Sand is blown by the winds into 

 the fresh wounds and causes an inflammation and a sloughing, which very often finishes the life of 

 the victim. The sailors term these invalid gatherings "hospitnls," a phrase which, like most of 

 their homely expressions, is quite appropriate. 



YotJNG Seals LEAHNiNa to swim. — Early in August, usually by the 8th or 10th, 1 noticed 

 one of the remarkable movements of the season. I refer to the pup's first essay in swimming. Is 

 it not odd — ^paradoxical — that the young Seal, from the moment of his birth until he is a month or 

 six weeks old, is utterly unable to swimf If he is seized by the nape of the neck and pitched out 

 a rod into the water from shore, his bullet-like head will drop instantly below the surface, and his 

 attenuated posterior extremities flap impotently on it; suffocation is the question of only a few 

 minutes, the stupid little creature not knowing how to raise his immersed head and gain the air 

 again. After they have attained the age I indicate, their instinct drives them down to the margin 

 of the surf, where the alternate ebbing and flowing of its wash covers and uncovers the rocky or 

 sandy beaches. They first smell and tlien touch the moist pools, and flounder in the upper wash 

 of the surf, which leaves them as suddenly high and dry as it immersed them at first. After this 

 beginning they make slow and clumsy progress in learning the knack of swimming. For a week 

 or two, when overhead in depth, they continue to flounder about in the most awkward manner, 

 thrashing the water as little dogs do, with their fore feet, making no attempt whatever to use the 

 hinder ones. Look at that pup now, launched out for the first time beyond his depth; see how he 

 struggles — his mouth wide open, and his eyes fairly popping. He turns instantly to the beach, 

 ere he has fairly struck out from the point whence he launched in, and, as the receding swell which 

 at first carried him off his feet and out, now returning leaves him high and dry, for a few minutes 

 he seems so weary that he weakly crawls up, out beyond its swift returning wash, and coils 

 himself up immediately to take'a recuperative nap. He sleeps a few minutes, perhaps half an hour, 

 then awakes as bright as a dollar, apparently rested, and at his swimming lesson he goes again. 

 By repeated and persistent attempts, the young Seal gradually becomes familiar with the water 

 and acquainted with his own power over that element, which is to be his real home and his whole 

 support. Once boldly swimming, the pup fairly revels in his new happiness. He and his brethren 

 have now begun to haul and swarm along the whole length of Saint Paul coast, from Northeast 

 Point down and around to Zapadnie, lining the alternating sand-beaches and rocky shingle with 

 their plump, black forms. How they do delight in it! They play with a zest, and chatter like 

 our own children in the kindergartens — swimming in endless evolutions, twisting, turning, or 

 diving — and when exhausted, drawing their plump, round bodies up again on the beach. Shaking 

 themselves dry as young dogs would do, they now either go to sleep on the spot, or have a lazy 

 terrestrial frolic among themselves. 



How an erroneous impression ever got into the mind of any man in this matter of the pup's 

 learning to swim, I confess that I am wholly unable to imagine. I have not seen any "driving " 

 of the young pups into the water by the old ones, in order to teach them this process, as certain 

 authors have pointedly affirmed. i There is not the slightest supervision by the old mother or father 

 of the pup, from the first moment of his birth, in this respect, until he leaves for the North Pacific, 



' Allen : History of North American Piunipeds, p. 387. 



