SEALS. 
345 
rutting season only serves to qualify them to move into the places 
vacated by those males who are obliged to leave from exhaus- 
tion, or to take the position of fearless and jealous protectors for 
the young pups in the fall. The courage with which the fur- 
seal holds his position as the head and guardian of a family is 
of the very highest order compared with that of other animals. I 
have repeatedly tried to drive them when they have fairly estab- 
lished themselves, and have almost always failed, using every 
stone at my command, making all the noise I could, and finally, 
to put their courage to the full test, I walked up to within twenty 
feet of a bull at the rear and extreme end of Tolstoi Rookery, 
who had four cows in charge, and commenced with my double- 
barrelled breech-loading shot-gun to pepper him all over with 
mustard-seed or dust-shot. His bearing in spite of the noise, 
smell of powder, and pain, did not change in the least from the 
usual attitude of determined defence which nearly all the bulls 
assume when attacked with showers of stones and noise ; he 
would dart out right and left and catch the cows which timidly 
attempted to run after each report, fling and drag them back 
to their places ; then, stretching up to his full height, look me 
directly and defiantly in the face, roaring and spitting most 
vehemently. The cows, however, soon got away from him, but 
he still stood his ground, making little charges on me of ten or 
fifteen feet in a succession of gallops or lunges, spitting furiously 
and then retreating to the old position, back of which he would 
not go, fully resolved to hold his own or die in the attempt. 
This courage is all the more noteworthy from the fact that, 
in regard to man, it is invariably of a defensive character. The 
seal, if it makes you turn when you attack it, never follows 
you much farther than the boundary of its station, and no aggra- 
vation will compel it to become offensive, as far as I have been 
able to observe. 
♦ # * * * * 
The apathy with which the young are treated by the old on 
the breeding-grounds is somewhat strange. I have never seen 
a cow caress or fondle her offspring, and should it stray but a 
short distance from the harem, it can be picked up and killed 
before the mother’s eyes, without causing her to show the 
slightest concern. The same indifference is exhibited by the 
bull to all that takes place outside of the boundary of his 
seraglio. While the pups are, however, within the limits of his 
harem-ground he is a jealous and fearless protector ; but if the 
little animals pass beyond this boundary, then they may be 
