MARINE CARNIVORA I2I 
herds during the breeding-season, and of spending a long period on land after the young are 
born. The male seals reach the islands, or “rookeries,” first, followed by the females. The 
latter give birth to their young almost as soon as they reach the rocks, and are then seized and 
gathered into harems by the strongest and oldest males. The sea-lions of Patagonia, equally 
with the fur-seals of Bering Sea and the Pribyloff Islands, never feed during the whole time 
which they spend on the rocks, often for a period of two months. 
THe Fur-SsEALs. 
The NorTHERN Fur-sEat is the only member of this group surviving in any number. 
These animals still annually resort to the Aleutian Islands, in the territory of Alaska, in great 
herds to produce their young, and to certain other islets off the coast of Japan. This northern 
fur-seal, from the fur of which the sealskin jackets are obtained, is, when full grown, between 
6 and 7 feet long. The females are only 4 feet or 4% feet in length. The shoulder of the male 
is gray, the rest of the body varying between reddish gray and deep black. The female is lighter 
in colour. Males of this species are not full grown till six years of age, but breed when four 
years old. The females produce young at three years of age. The male seals take possession 
of the females almost immediately after reaching the breeding grounds, each male collecting as 
-many females as it can round it The pups keep with their mothers. This assemblage is 
surrounded by great numbers of young male or bachelor seals, which the old males prevent from 
annexing any of the females. The greatest of all these gathering-places are on the Pribyloff 
Islands and certain other islets in Bering Sea. By the end of May both male and female seals 
swim in flocks through Bering Straits, making for the islands. The islands themselves are 
leased to American merchants. But as those seals killed on the way are all just about to bring 
forth young, the waste and cruelty of this “ pelagic sealing” will be easily understood. On the 
islands, or “ rookeries,” the males, mothers, and pups remain till August, when the pups take to 
the water. The male seals have remained for at least two months, incessantly fighting and 
watching, without taking any food. By that time they are quite exhausted, the fat which they 
laid up previously being all absorbed. The fur has not naturally either the colour or texture 
is y vie! gig se 
Lay " ee 
+ ees ne 4 : fs * Va ping sci 
SEA-LION 
This photograph shows the dry mane of the sea-lion, a rather uncommon sight, as it rarely remains long enough out of the water for its fur 
ar ae = a - 
Photo by G. W. Wilson & Co., Ltd.| 
[Aberdeen 
to become absolutely dry 
