Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-02-08
A BACHELOR" SEAL.

IuS census report upon lulS interesting
subject was made by Mr.. ii. W. Elliott
after several trips to our seal gardens,
the ''PTybllOy islands," in the very heart
of Behring Sea. He begins by saying that
these little islands, mere dots in the Ssa
are the only spots in the entire northern
hemisphere fitted by the natural sur
roundings for the home of the fur seal.
There are, he says, numerous places in
the southern hemisphere where the fur
seal thriyed a half century or century
ago, notably along the western coast of
Patagonia and in the vicinity of the Cape
of Good Hope and among the islands in
the vicinity OF New Zealand. There they
existed in great numbers, but they were
ruthlessIy slaughtered by millions and
hundreds of millions, and by she fleets
of seal hunting vessels, who slaughtered
them unfortunately and drove them
fairly OIt of existence. SO that there are
practically none left In all the Antarctic
hemisphere, where there are thousands of
times the quantities of breeding grounds
that there are in the northern hemisphere,
where they now exist. There are, all told,
only four little islands in the entire
northern hemisphere of quality OF
climate and surroundings to make them the
home Of the fur seal. Two of these, st.
George and st. Paul, are in the heart OF
Behring S-a, and are included in the linn
its of our Alaska purchase. The other
two are the Commander Islands, lying
700 miles west of these, in the dOminiOns
Of the Car. Happily for us our two
islands are much more popular with
the seals than those OF the Gar,
and may be counted the only
fur-seal grounds of any Importance in the
world And yet the larger OF these, st.
Paul, is but about Is miles long and 6
miles wide, while the other is little over
half this size. They are mere sand banks
formed about some volcanic upheavals,
with a very little vegetable life. The
warmer stream OF water flowing up from
the South in summer makes dense fog
here all the summer months, and in this
the fyr seals thrive. They come swim
ming in from the ocean, which lies south
of these islands, about the months of May
and ,yuue. They seem to have spent the
winter in the water, III which they swim
and eat and sleep with entire ease-much
greater, indeed, than they remain on land.
Indeed. they eat nothing on land. Fish
ia their entire food, and these they devour
as soon as caught, in the water. Their
sole purpose of coming on shore seems to
have reference solely to their young. The
fur seals. exclusive of their infants, are
divided into three classes-the old males,
who are heads of pOlygamOus families;
the Young males, termed "DachelorS" by
the natives, who seem to be gentlemen OF
elegant leisure. but who suffer for it in
the e. d, as will be seen further on, and
the females. The old males, the heads of
the pOlvgamOus families to he, come in
first from the sea about May l, posting
themselves upon the rocks, each pre-
pmDting a spot of ground, say six or eight
feet SQUARE. There they sit and watch,
dav after day, for the coming Of tue fe-
males. eating nothing, and never leaving
their posts from the time of coming on
shore about May l to Aug. 1, eating abso-
Iutelv nothing in all that time, and
crawling back into the water at
the end Of the family season absolute
skeletons. They lie on the rocks after
taking their positions, waiting for the fe-
males to come in, which occurs week or
two later. AS they come up the old males
try each 20 coax as many as possible into
his bailiwick. the one TO whose location
the gentle and graceful animal comes
rudelv Selling her by toe neck and
vanking her on 60 his presumption.
Then ne begins looking for another,
and before he knows it some fellow
adjoining has stolen his bride from him.
Then terrific fieh5 occurs, in which the
males bite and cash each other terribly
and almost pull the WOuld-be bride lr
pieces, snatching her about from one
ahOlding', to another. Meantime others
come in, and the fight thus goes on for
davs and weeks. until each of the old po-
Iygamists has supplied himself with from
three or four to twenty wives. These am
bilious heads of families are always as
much as six or eight wears old.