Marine Carnivora 



137 



herds chiving the breeding-season, and of spending a long period on hind after the young are 

 born. The male seals reach the islands, or "rookeries," first, followed Ijy the females. The 

 latter give birth to their young almost as soon as they reach the rocks, and are then seized 

 and gathered into hareins 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-seals. 

 The Northern Fdr-seal is the only member of tliis 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 w-hich the seal-skin 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 grey, the 

 rest of the body varying between reddish grey and deep black. The female is lighter in colour. 

 ]\lales 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 which art gives it. The 



I'l.alo h,l I » II 



^ll.ii-lj±^'jN 



This photograph shows the dry mane of the sea-lion, a rather nncoinmon siglit, as it rarely remains long enough out of the water for its 



fur to become absolutely dry. 



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