Part 8 (2/2)

”Why do you herd them so close together?” asked Colin. ”I should have thought there was lots of room on the beaches of the island.”

”They herd themselves,” the agent said. ”Don't go anywhere unless it is crowded. The more a place is jammed, the more anxious they are to get there. Newcomers won't go to empty harems. Unhappy with only one or two other cows. Try and find room in a crowded bunch where one sea-catch is looking after thirty females.”

”But,” said Colin, looking at the group which was nearest to him, ”there are a lot of little baby seals in there! They'll get trodden on!”

”They are trodden on. Often,” said the agent. ”Can't be helped. Only a few pups right in the harems and they are all small. Obviously! Go away when they are a week old. Wander from the harem to find playfellows.

Make up 'pods' or nurseries. Sometimes four or five hundred in one nursery. Stay until the end of the season. There's a pod of pups,” he continued, pointing up the beach; ”about sixty of them, I should judge.

Happy-looking? Clearly!”

”They look like big black kittens,” said Colin, as he watched them tumbling about on the pebbly beach, ”and just as full of fun. Can they swim as soon as they are born, Mr. Nagge?”

”Seals have to learn to swim. Same as boys,” he answered. ”They teach themselves, apparently! Young seal, thrown into deep water, will drown.

Queer. Become wonderful swimmers, too.”

”About how long does it take them to learn?” Colin asked.

”Don't begin until they are three weeks old,” was the reply. ”Practise several hours a day. Swim well in about a month.”

”Why don't the father or the mother seals teach them?” queried the boy.

”A sea-catch doesn't see anything outside the harem. As long as a pup is within twelve feet of him, he will fight on the instant if the baby is in danger. Once it is in the nursery the bull seal forgets the little one's existence. He couldn't leave, anyway. Some other sea-catch would seize the harem.”

”You mean that the old seal can't get away at all?”

”Not at all,” was the reply.

”Then what does he get to eat?” asked Colin in surprise, ”do the cow seals bring him food?”

”Not a bite. No. He doesn't eat at all. Not all summer.”

”Never gets a bite of anything? I should think he'd starve to death,”

cried the lad.

”Fasts for nearly four months. From the time a sea-catch hauls up in May and preempts the spot he has chosen for his harem he doesn't leave that spot eight to sixteen feet square until late in August. Stays right there. He's active enough in some ways. No matter how much he flounders around, he keeps right on his own harem ground. He could hardly get away from it if he tried.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: HOLLUSCHICKIE HAULING UP FROM THE SEA.

Rare sketch, taken before ever a camera was seen on the Pribilof Islands. This beach, with many others, is now deserted by the depletion of the seal herd.

_Courtesy of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD BULL-SEALS FIGHTING.

Rare sketch, taken on the Gorbatch Rookery, St. Paul's Island, forty years ago. These combats are growing rarer as the seal herd grows smaller and the rivalry between the beach-masters is less intense. The date on the sketch shows it to have been made before the cow-seals hauled up.

_Courtesy of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries._]

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