seals. 
343 
bodies writhe and swell with exertion and rage, fur flying in air 
and blood streaming down — all combined make a picture fierce 
and savage enough, and, from its great novelty, exceedingly 
strange at first sight. In these battles the parties are always 
distinct, the offensive and the defensive : if the latter proves the 
weaker he withdraws from the position occupied, and is never 
followed by his conqueror, who complacently throws up one of 
his hind flippers, fans himself, as it were, to cool himself from 
the heat of the conflict, uttering a peculiar chuckle of satisfac- 
tion and contempt, with a sharp eye open for the next covetous 
bull or ‘ sea-catch ’ (native name for "Tie bulls on the rookeries, 
especially those which are able to maintain their position). 
* ^ ^ ^ ^ 
All the bulls, from the very first, that have been able to hold 
their positions have not left them for an instant, night or day ; 
nor do they do so until the end of the rutting season, which 
subsides entirely between the 1st and 10th of August, beginning 
shortly after the coming of the cows in June. Of necessity, 
therefore, this causes them to fast, to abstain entirely from food 
of any kind, or water for at least three months ; and a few of 
them stay four months before going into the water for the first 
time after hauling up in May. This alone is remarkable 
enough, but it is simply wonderful when we come to associate 
the condition with unceasing activity, restlessness, and duty de- 
volved upon the bulls as heads and fathers of large families. 
They do not stagnate like bears in caves ; it is evidently 
accomplished or due to the absorption of their own fat, with 
which they are so liberally supplied when they take their posi- 
tions on the breeding-ground, and which gradually diminishes 
while they remain on it. 
* * * * « & * 
They are noticed and received by the bulls on the water-line 
station with much attention ; they are alternately coaxed and 
urged up on the rocks, and are immediately under the most 
jealous supervision ; but owing to the covetous and ambitious 
nature of the bulls which occupy the stations reaching some way 
back from the water-line, the little cows have a rough-and- 
tumble time of it when they begin to arrive in small numbers 
at first ; for no sooner is the pretty animal fairly established on 
the station of bull No. 1 who has installed her there, than he 
perhaps sees another one of her style down in the water from 
which she has just come, and in obedience to his polygamous 
feeling, he devotes himself anew to coaxing the later arrival in 
the same winning manner so successful in her case, when bull 
16 
