of thousands, they pass several months without the least food. The males (oxen) come first to the place, most of them in the month of May or at the beginning of June. Combats of excessive violence, often with a deadly issue for one of the parties, now arise regarding the space of about a hundred square feet, which each seal-ox considers necessary for its home. The strongest and most successful in fight retain the best places near the shore, the weaker have to crawl farther up on land, where the expectation of getting a sufficient number of spouses is not particularly great. The fighting goes on with many feigned attacks and parades. At first the contest concerns the proprietorship of the soil. The attacked therefore never follows its opponent beyond the area it has once taken up, but haughtily lays itself down, when the enemy has retired, in order in the aims of sleep to collect forces for a new combat. The animal in such a case grunts with satisfaction, throws itself on its back, scratches itself with its fore-feet, looks after its toilet, or cools itself by slowly fanning with one of its hind-feet, but it is always on the alert and ready for a new fight until it is tired out and meets its match, and is driven by it farther up from the beach. One of the most peculiar traits of these animals is that during their stay on land they unceasingly use their hind-paws as fans, and sometimes also as parasols. Such fans may on a warm day be in motion at the same time by the hundred thousand at a "rookery."
In the middle of June the females come up from the sea. At the water's edge they are received in a very accommodating way by some strong oxen that have succeeded in securing for themselves places next the shore, and now are bent by fair means or foul on annexing the fair for their harem. But scarcely is the female that has come up out of the water established with seal-ox No. 1, when this ox rushes towards a new beauty on the surface of the water. Seal-ox No. 2 now stretches out his neck and without ceremony lays hold of No. 1's spouse, to be afterwards exposed to a repetition of the trick by No. 3. In such cases the females are quite passive, never fall out with each other, and bear with patience the severe wounds they often get when they are pulled about by the combatants, now in one direction, now in another. All the females are finally distributed in this way after furious combats among the males, those of the latter who are nearest the beach getting from twelve to fifteen consorts to their share. Those that have been compelled to settle farther from the shore must be content with four or five. Soon after the landing of the females they bring forth their young, which are treated with great indifference and are protected by the adopted father only within the boundaries of the harem. Next comes the pairing season, and when it has passed there is an end to the arrangement and distribution into families at first so strictly maintained. The seal-oxen, rendered lean by three months absolute fasting, by degrees leave the "rookery," which is taken possession of by the sea-cows, the young, and a number of young males, that have not ventured to the place before. In the middle of September, when the young have learned to swim, the place is quite abandoned, with the exception of single animals that have remained behind for one reason or other. In long continued heavy rain many of the animals besides seek protection in the sea, but return when the rain ceases. Continuous heat and sunshine besides exert the same influence, cold, moist air, with mist-concealed sun, on the other hand draw them up on land by thousands.
Males under six years of age cannot, like the older males, possess themselves, by fighting, of spouses and a home of their own. They therefore collect, along with young females, in herds of several thousand to several hundred thousand, on the shores between the rookeries proper, some of them close packed next the water's edge, others scattered in small flocks a little farther from the shore on the grass, where they by turns play with each
other with a frolicsomeness like that of young dogs, by turns he down to sleep at a common signal in all conceivable positions.
It is these unfortunate useless bachelors which at the properly managed hunting stations yield the contingent for slaughter. For this purpose they are driven by the natives from the shore slowly, about a kilometre an hour, and with frequent rests, to the place of slaughter, situated a kilometre or two from the shore. Then the females and the young ones are driven away, as well as the males whose skins are unserviceable. The rest are first stunned with a blow on the head, and afterwards stabbed with a knife.
While the Vega steamed down towards Behring Island we met, already far from land, herds of sea-bears, which followed the vessel from curiosity for long stretches. Being unacquainted with the sea-bear's mode of life, I believed from this circumstance that they had already left their summer haunts, but on our arrival at the colony I was informed that this was not the case, but that a very great number of animals still remained at the rookery on the north-eastern point of the island. Naturally one of our first excursions was to this place, situated about twenty kilometres from the village. Such a journey cannot now be undertaken alone and unattended, because even an involuntary want of caution might easily cause much economic loss to the natives, and to the company that owns the right of hunting. During the journey we were accordingly accompanied by the chief of the village, a black-haired stammering Aleutian, and "the Cossack," a young, pleasant, and agreeable fellow, who on solemn occasions wore a sabre nearly as long as himself, but besides did not in the least correspond to the Cossack type of the writers of novels and plays.
The journey was performed in large sledges drawn by ten dogs over snow-free rounded hills and hill-plateaus covered with a rather scanty vegetation, and through valleys treeless as the mountains, but adorned with luxuriant vegetation, rich in splendid lilies, syngenesia, umbellifera, &c. The journey was sometimes tedious enough, but we now and then went at a whistling rate, especially when the dog-team descended the steep mountain slopes, or went through the morasses and the clay puddles formed in the constantly used way. The driver was bespattered from top to toe with a thick layer of mud, an inconvenience attending the unusual team, which was foreseen before our departure from the colony, in consequence of which our friends there urged that, notwithstanding the fine weather, we should all take overcoats. The dog-team was kept pretty far from the shore in order not to frighten the seals, and then we went on foot to the place where the sea-bears were, choosing
