THE BULL FUR SEAL. 



GEORGE ARCHIBALD CLARK. 



The accompanying photograph, shows an 

 average specimen of the adult male fur 

 seal, Callorhinits Alascanus. 1 took the 

 picture in the summer of 1897, while with 

 the Fur Seal Commission. The place is 

 Lukanin rookery on St. Paul, the largest 

 of the two islands of the Pribilof group 

 which are occupied by the American fur 

 seal herd. The breeding grounds of the 

 seals occupy about 8 miles of shore line, 

 broken into numerous groups called 

 " rookeries " by intervening sand beaches 

 or precipitous cliffs. The breeding seals 

 lie in a narrow band along the bowlder 

 beaches and the sloping rocky hillsides just 

 above high tide. 



AN ADULT MALE FUR SEAL. 



This picture was taken in August just 

 after the breeding season was over. All the 

 other animals, old and young, had de- 

 camped. The old veteran did not in- 

 tend to be driven even if his family had 

 deserted leaving him nothing to fight for. 

 The picture shows him at about the limit 

 of his patience, and it is just as well that 

 the camera does not record my inglorious 

 retreat of an instant later. There can 

 scarcely be a more thrilling sensation than 

 that experienced in photographing one of 

 these great beasts at close range. It re- 

 quires a nice sense of judgment to de- 

 termine when the danger point is reached 

 and one must be quick and above all sure 

 footed to recover himself and get out of the 

 way of the angry charge which invariably 

 follows the pause necessary to adjust and 

 snap the instrument. The weather condi- 



tions of the Pribilofs as a rule necessitate 

 the wearing of sou'westers, rain coats and 

 hip rubber boots, and to make a rapid exit 

 thus accoutered, over loose and slippery 

 bowlders, is no easy thing. 



The bull fur seal is essentially a bear 

 adapted to life in the water, where he gets 

 his food and spends his long winters. His 

 courage and viciousness in the breeding 

 season are boundless. He is ; however, 

 clumsy in his movements on land because 

 of his great oar-like feet, though in a short 

 race over the slippery rocks, which are his 

 favorite haunts, he is no mean antagonist. 

 His sharp canines and powerful jaws are 

 capable of fearful execution in the tough 

 hide of his fellows, and it is altogether 

 likely a man would fare badly in their 

 clutches. That none of the numerous in- 

 vestigators who have studied the seal 

 rookeries in the past have fallen victim is a 

 high testimonial to the respect which the 

 bull seal's evident capacity for mischief has 

 inspired. 



It is, however, not ordinarily a danger- 

 ous thing to go about among them, if one 

 keeps a respectful distance. The animals 

 act wholly on the defensive. When you ap- 

 proach too closely the bull will charge 

 fiercely, but after going a dozen paces he 

 will turn about to see what his real or 

 imaginary harem is doing. 



The polygamous habit of the seals shuts 

 out from the breeding grounds a large num- 

 ber of full grown and capable males that 

 have been unfortunate in their location or 

 time of landing, or that have been defeated. 

 These hang about the skirts of the rookeries 

 seeking an opportunity to break in. The 

 over-valiant harem-master that gets too far 

 away is apt, therefore, to have his claim 

 jumped and, on his return, must fight for 

 it with the odds against him. It has, there- 

 fore, become an instinct with the bull seal 

 to stop and look back. He will not then 

 renew the attack unless again pressed. 

 The real danger as to getting away lies in 

 the possibility of stumbling in the first brief 

 run, or in running into the mouth of one 

 animal in escaping from another. In the 

 foggy atmosphere of the islands it is not 

 always easy to distinguish the animals from 

 the rocks among which they lie. 



Five thousand of these bulls held 

 " harems," as the fur seal families are 

 called, on the rookeries of St. Paul and St. 

 George, in the season of 1897 ; the harems 

 numbering from one female upward, the 

 average being about 30. There was an 



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