SEAL FIGHT.
About this time, many of the old males who have successfully held their position become exhausted, and now and again the less fortunate or single males behind, in stronger or fresher condition, drive the former from their posts, and the latter take their places. There is no wonder that exhaustion succeeds. Indeed, one of the most remarkable features in the history of these Sea Lions is that for two months and more these heroic males, that arrived fat and plump from their winter quarters, have held their positions on land against all comers, and this without tasting food, water, or almost sleep during this period. It seems scarcely credible that animals incessantly on the watch, excited and bearing the brunt of sanguinary contests, should be able to undergo starvation under such circumstances. This fact is almost unique in natural history; for, though hibernation for long periods is common to the Bear, Hedgehog, &c., their winter sleep is accompanied by cessation of all bodily exertion, and the functions of circulation, respiration, and digestion are comparatively at a standstill. In truth, how this and other species of Otaria, for the habit is not limited to the Fur Seal, endure such a lengthened abstinence, physiology fails to explain.
While the families, in groups as afore mentioned, with their dominate lords, hold the favourite grounds, the great mass of the younger members of the community are not thoroughly excluded from the domains of the “rookery.” By common consent, here and there long narrow lanes of neutral ground are left open from the beach upwards, and along these continually pass to and fro the non-breeding animals. These go to the rear, where they pack themselves in a kind of general medley, their gregarious nature leading them there to swarm.
The young animals in the beginning of August begin to take to the water, with which they soon become familiar, frolicking about, and returning like lazy Dogs to sleep after their exertions. They grow fast, and gathering in squads swarm over the whole “rookery.” The colony now begins to break up from the family-parties first instituted. Some besport themselves, or possibly feed in the neighbourhood; others range on the sandy and grassy uplands, in groups of hundreds to thousands, and seem to play and enjoy themselves in a rollicking, lively manner. Their gambolling is very good-natured, then seldom quarrelling. They appear to delight in dashing through the breakers, and “hauling up” on the surf-beaten shore. In dull, foggy weather, they crowd close together in myriads, and a bright, warm day sends them off quickly to the water, seemingly to avoid heat.
What they live on during all this period it is difficult to state, for the fish round the island appear to be driven off on the arrival of the Sea Lions. They, nevertheless, subsist and thrive. In the stomachs of most of the older animals several pounds’ weight of pebbles are usually found.
At one time 100,000 young males were killed annually, the females not being interfered with. This will show how enormous the number of Seals on these islands was. But the slaughter has not always been wisely regulated. When the Russian American Company first hunted, up till 1837, they ran great danger of exterminating all, killing every animal regardless of sex; and complications have occasionally arisen between the United States and Great Britain about the right of fishery, the former Government being desirous of preventing the extinction of the Seals, and on that account claiming a wide jurisdiction in the Behring Sea. Mr. Elliott, by roughly numbering the animals in a family group, and estimating the given area of the “rookeries” when the greatest mass are on shore, calculated the total numbers at between four and five millions.
The killing of these Seals is quite a peculiar occupation of the islanders. After the breeding season, the hunters take advantage of the dull and foggy weather, and creep down between the herd and the water. Then suddenly rising and shouting together they drive landwards the affrighted animals, though many of course escape. Closing on them, they allow the females and the very old males by degrees to pass, and then drive the remainder at a slow rate towards the killing-ground, some distance off. Watchers remain over night with them, and in the morning, when the Seals have rested and cooled down, the work of slaughter begins. Squads of forty or fifty are separated, and the islanders then surround these in a body, the animals meantime huddling together and treading over each other’s flippers, cannot well attack or defend themselves, and they are then clubbed by blows on the head. While this bloody process is going on, a number of the men dexterously skin the animals, and others look after the blubber, and such parts as are useful for food and other purposes.
STELLER’S SEA LION,[210] OR THE HAIR SEAL OF THE PRIBYLOFFS, is an animal in some respects not unlike the Fur Seal originally described by the aforesaid Russian naturalist. But it is a much more powerful animal, and though in contiguity to its congener originally named by this author Sea Bear, it differs in habits as well as in other particulars, besides the broad fact of its possessing such sparse, and, when old, such absence of under-wool that it comes to be classed as a true Hair Seal. The male and female animal are of unequal size; the former attains a bodily length of eleven or twelve feet, and a weight of 1,000 lbs. and more, while the latter is barely more than half the dimensions and weight of her partner. The male has quite a leonine appearance and bearing, and often exhibits great ferocity of expression. His colour is of a golden rufous tint, darker behind, or occasionally with brownish patches, the limbs more nearly approaching black. Some variation occurs with regard to the brindling and hue generally, the female being slightly paler than the male.
Their movements on land, though in many respects similar to, are not so free as those of the Fur Seal, and never are they found far from the water. Some of them herd along with the Fur Seals, their powerful organisation enabling them to hold and retain the shore locations. They, however, congregate in breeding-grounds slightly apart. While polygamous, they have not the regular system, nor give such attention to their harem as does the Callorhinus. In comparison with the latter, their numbers on the Pribyloffs are not great, in all between thirty and forty thousand. They are shy creatures, and, as Elliott remarks, on the slightest approach of man, a stampede into the water is the certain result.