AMONG THE SEALS 97 



seemed to furnish them a good excuse to give vent to 

 their feelings. In this market the females belong to the 

 strong. We saw several forlorn old males hovering 

 around who had played the game and lost. They looked 

 like bankrupt gamblers at a watering place. 



The females are much smaller and lighter in color than 

 their lords and masters. They lay very quietly among 

 the rocks, now and then casting uneasy glances at us. 

 Their heads are small and their jaws slender; their 

 growls and threats are not very terrifying. 



Lying there in masses or wriggling about upon the 

 rocks, all their lines soft and flowing, all their motions 

 hampered, the fur-seals suggested huge larvae, or some- 

 thing between the grub and the mature insect. They 

 appeared to be yet in a kind of sack or envelope. The 

 males wriggle about like a man in a bag; but once in 

 the water they are a part of the wave, as fleet and nimble 

 as a fish, or as a bird in the air. In the sounds which 

 they continually emitted they did not remind me of bulls 

 or cows, but of sheep. The hoarse staccato bleating of 

 the males was precisely like that of old rams, while the 

 shriller calls of the females and the fine treble of the 

 pups were equally like those of ewes or lambs. Some 

 belated females were still arriving while we looked on. 

 They came in timidly, lifted themselves upon the edge of 

 the rocks and looked about as if to find a vacant place, or 

 to receive a welcome. Much sparring and threatening 

 was going on among the males, but I saw none actually 

 come to blows. By careful movements and low tones we 

 went about without much exciting them. 



On the island we first saw the yellow poppy. It was 

 scattered everywhere amid the grass like the crimson 

 poppy of Europe. A wonderful display of other wild 

 flowers was about our feet as we walked. Here also the 

 Lapland longspur was in song, and a few snow buntings 



