Part 9 (1/2)

”Why not?”

”He couldn't leave his own harem without getting into the next one.

Obviously!” the agent promptly replied. ”And he'd have to fight that beachmaster. Evidently! And so on every few feet he went. Besides, the very moment his back was turned a neighboring bull would steal some of his cows. Certainly! Or, an idle bull would try and beat him out.”

”Which are the idle bulls?” asked Colin.

”Those fellows at the back who came late or were beaten in the fight for places. They would charge down and take the harem, if he left it.”

”Well, then, how does he sleep?”

”Doesn't sleep much,” was the reply; ”just little catnaps. Five or ten minutes at a time, perhaps. Light sleepers, too. If a cow tries to leave or an intruder comes near he wakes right up. Immediately! He's on the alert, night and day.” The agent laughed. ”Eternal vigilance is the bull seal's motto, all right!”

”But how can they stand it without food and without sleep?” Colin asked.

”That's over three months of fasting. And it isn't like an animal that's asleep all winter. It seems to be their busiest time, fighting and watching and all that sort of thing!”

”They live on their blubber,” the agent explained. ”In the spring they haul up heavy and fat. Can hardly move around they're so fleshy. It's the end of June now. You see! Many bulls are loaded with fat still. By the end of next month, though, they'll be getting thin. Some of 'em are like skeletons when they leave the rookeries in August. They'll fight to the end, though.”

”But if they leave each other's harems alone,” Colin objected, ”I don't see any cause for a fight.”

”The cows don't all come at the same time. Perhaps for six weeks there are cows coming all the time. Those beachmasters who have harems nearest the water want their family first and there's fighting all along the water's edge, then. Other cows have to make their way insh.o.r.e; any of the sea-catches may grab them. Wait a minute and watch. You'll see the scramble going on somewhere. There are two bulls fighting there,” he added, pointing to a combat in progress some distance off, ”and there's another--and another.”

”Is that one of the new cows just coming in from the water?” asked Colin, pointing to the sh.o.r.e, where a female seal, quietly and without attracting attention, had landed near one of the large harems.

”Yes,” the agent said. ”Just watch her a while. You'll see how the fighting begins.”

Moving quietly and slowly and making just as little disturbance as possible, the incoming seal made her way through and over the rec.u.mbent seals, keeping as far as she could from the beachmasters. Those huge monarchs of the waterside eyed her closely, but the harems were full to the last inch of ground and they let her pa.s.s, the cow seal remaining quiet as long as the beachmaster was watching, then creeping on a yard or two.

”She'll get caught by the next one,” said Colin. ”See, there's just about room enough in his harem for one more.”

But the cow managed to make her way past, the old bull being engrossed in watching a neighboring sea-catch whom he suspected of designs upon his home. She had only succeeded in reaching a point about six harems inland, however, when a bull with a small group of only about twelve cows, suddenly reached out with his strong neck, grabbed her by the back with his sharp teeth and threw her on the rocks with the rest of his company. As the sea-catch weighed over four hundred pounds and the cow not more than eighty--the poor creature was flung down most cruelly.

”The brute!” cried Colin.

But for some reason the cow was dissatisfied with her new master and tried to escape. The old sea-catch made a lunge forward and caught her by the back of the neck, biting viciously as he did so, in such wise that the teeth tore away the skin and flesh, making two raw and ugly wounds.

Colin's indignation was without bounds.

”I'd like to smash that old beast!” he said, and if the agent had not been there to stop him the boy would have jumped over the low wall and gone to the a.s.sistance of the cow seal.

”That's going on all the time,” the agent said. ”You can't settle the affairs of ten thousand families. Not offhand that way. You'd be kept busy if you tried to fight the battles of every female that hauls up on St. Paul rookery.”

”But see,” cried Colin, ”he's going after her again!”

This time the sea-catch was evidently angry, for he shook the cow as a dog does a rat and tossed her back into the very center of the harem, standing over her and growling angrily. The agent looked on tranquilly.

”There's going to be trouble,” he said. ”See that idle bull coming?”

He pointed to the back of the rookery, and Colin saw a sea-catch of good size, though not as large as the bull whose savage attack on the cow had excited Colin's resentment, come plunging down through the rookery with the clumsy lope of the excited seal. The cow squirmed from under the threatening fangs of her captor, but just as he was about to punish her still more severely, he caught sight of the intruder, and, with a vicious snap, he whirled round to the defense. The newcomer, though powerful, showed the dark-brown rather than the grizzled over-hair of the older bull, but while he had youth on his side, he was not the veteran of hundreds of battles.