Part 10 (1/2)
”Not quite,” was the reply ”The road to the killing-grounds begins there, though Naturally! We don't take any seals from a rookery”
”Why not?”
”No use! They are all either old bulls, females, or pups,” was the answer ”The fur of the old sea-catches is coarse Couldn't sell it
Never kill a cow seal under any circu seals at sea is about You can't tell a holluschickie from a cow seal in the water Cruel, too When a cow seal is on her way to the rookery, she will have a baby seal in a few days”
”The holluschickie, then,” said Colin, ”don't come on the rookery at all?”
”Never! Absolutely! The bachelors, which are young male seals five years old and under, leave the rookery alone The old sea-catches look after that Certainly! It is mutilation or death for a holluschickie to put so much as a flipper on a rookery They seldorounds are at a distance Obviously! Soet to the sea without having to cross the rough, rocky ground which is suitable for a rookery”
”How can they work it, then?”
”The sea-catches leave a road eight feet wide, no ives just room for two holluschickie to pass
The beachmasters whose harems are on either side of this road watch theht beside the road If one of the holluschickie touches a cow on either side of this clear road-space, he will be attacked savagely”
”But I should think he could get away easily enough,” Colin objected, ”because the sea-catch can't leave his hareent answered ”Every one will attack a holluschickie who has once been attacked No chance to escape But the bachelors know that They pass up and down such a causeway by thousands, night and day They 'don't turn to de right, don't turn to de lef', but keep in de
”And you say that all the furs, then, are taken fro the holluschickie?” queried the boy
”Every one of them”
”But how do you hunt the bachelor seals?”
The agent stared at hihter
”Hunt? How do you hunt pet puppies?” he queried, in reply ”The holluschickie are the tarounds now Let's go down You'll see how ta-floor or a parade-ground for soldiers!” cried Colin as, reaching the top of the hill, he looked across a stretch of upland plain at least half aof shrubbery of any kind, all had been beaten down and the bare ground was as sh it had been leveled off and rolled Upon this bare plain, thousands of the holluschickie were playing, theto be a voluntary ather into lines or groups and lope along at exactly the sa siain, as though obeying the coeant
”They don't seem to play with each otherthe holluschickie, who showed neither fear nor excite aside a foot or two to let theent said ”Play 'King of the Castle' on a flat-topped rock for hours together One seal pushes the other off the coveted post, only to be dislodged hin of ill-humor They never bite They never injure one another They never even growl angrily It's hard to believe that their tee so quickly when they reach the rookery”
”They seees and sizes,” said Colin
[Illustration: BULL FUR-SEAL CHARGING THE CAMERA
_Courtesy of the National Geographic Magazine_]
[Illustration: SNAPSHOTTING AN OLD BEACH-MASTER
This plate was recovered, although the photographer was drowned on the treacherous shores of the Pribilof Islands the very day the picture was taken
_Courtesy of the U S Bureau of Fisheries_]
”Yearlings of both sexes and ent answered