THE FUR SEAL: EYES OF YOUNG. 95 



which holds this place as it, grows on and older, is the eye. This organ is exceedingly clear, dark, 

 and liquid, with which, for beauty and amiability, together with real intelligence of expression, 

 those of no other animal that I have ever seen, or have ever read of, can be compared; indeed, 

 there are few eyes in the orbits of men and women which suggest more pleasantly tlie ancient 

 thought of their being "windows to the soul." The lids to the eye are fringed with long, perfect 

 lashes, and the slightest annoyance, in the way of dust or sand, or other foreign substances, seems 

 to cause them exquisite annoyance, accompanied by immoderate weeping. This involuntary tear- 

 fulness so moved Steller that he ascribed it to the processes of the Seal's mind, and declared that 

 the seal-mothers actually shed tears. 



Range of vision. — I do not think that their range of vision on land, or out of the water, is 

 very great. I have experimented frequently with adult Fur Seals, by allowing them to catch 

 sight of my person, so as to dis'tinguish it as of foreign character, three and four hundred paces 

 olf, taking the precaution of standing to the leeward of them when the wind was blowing strong, 

 and then walking unconcernedly up to them. I have invariably noticed, that they would allow me 

 to approach quite close before recognizing my strangeness; this occurring to them, they at once 

 made a lively noise, a medley of coughing, spitting, snorting, and blaating, and plunged in spasmodic 

 lopes and shambled to get away from my immediate neighborhood; as to the pups, they all stupidly 

 stare at the form of a human being until it is fairly on them, when they also repeat in miniature 

 these vocal gymnastics and physical efforts of the older ones, to retreat or withdraw a few rods, 

 sometimes only a few feet, from the spot upon which you have cornered them, after which they 

 instantly resume their previous occupation of either sleeping or playing, as though nothing had 

 happened. 



Behavioe of Fue Seals at night. — I naturally enough, when beginning my investigation 

 of these seal-rookeries, expected to find the animals subdued at night, or early morning, on the 

 breeding-grounds; but a few consecutive nocturnal watches satisfied me that the family organiza- 

 tion and noise was as active at one time as at another throughout the whole twenty-four hours. If, 

 howevt'.r, the day preceding had chanced to be abnormally warm, I never failed then to find the 

 rookeries much more n; isy and active during the night than they were by daylight. The Seals, as 

 a rule, come and go to and from the sea, fight, roar, and vocalize as much during midnight moments 

 as they flo at noonday times. An aged native endeavored to satisfy me that the " Seec ;tchie" could 

 see much better by twilight and night than by daylight. I am not prepared to prove to the 

 contrary , but I think that the fact of his not being able to see so well himself at that hour of 

 darkness was the true cause of most of his belief in the im|)roved_nocturnal vision of the Seals. 



Ai: i write, this old Aleut, Phillip Vollkov, has passed to his final rest — "un konchielsah" — 

 winter of 1878-79. He was one of the real characters of Saint Paul; he was esteemed by the 

 whiteis on account of his relative intelligence, and beloved by the natives, who called him their 

 "wise man," and who exulted in his piety. Phillip, like the other people there of his kind, was 

 not much comfort to me when I asked questions as to the Seals. He usually answered important 

 inquiries by crossing himself, and replying, "God knows." There was no appeal from this. 



SoLLENNBSS OF OLD MALE SEALS. — The old males, when grouped together by themseh'os, 

 at thii close of the breeding-season, indulge in no humor or frolicsome festivities whatsoever. On 

 the contrarj', they treat each other with surly indifference. The mature females, howevei', do 

 not appear to k-se their good nature to anything like so marked a degree as do their lords and 

 masters, for they will at all seasons of their presence on the islands be observed, now and then, 

 to suddenly unbend from severe matronly gravity by coyly and amiably tickling and gently teasing 

 onft another, as they rest in the harems, or later, when strolling in September. There is no sign 



