Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1889-10-11
THE SEALS OF ALASKA.

States, were discovered by the Rus
sian Pribylov, after whom they were
named. They seem to be situated
Just where the warm Pacific currents
meet the currents from the Arctic
Ocean, and the result is continuous
dense fogs in summer and an endless
storm of driving snow and fine ice all
winter. 1t is almost impossible to
leave the house from December until
April every year. 1t is this constant
summer fog that has drawn to the
islands every year for centuries if not
for ages, the millions of seals that in
habit for the rest of the year the
warmer waters of the Central Pacific.
Early in May, when the last OF the
winter ice is just disappearing from
the rocky shores, the first seal appears.
1t is always an old male. His appear
ance would be an intense disappoint-
ment to one whose ideas of seals were
formed upon the sleek and gentle lit
tie creatures that perform in Bar
NUNS show. There are seals and
seals, and Mr.. Barnum's seal is as un-
like the seal of Alaskan waters ''as
raccoon is unlike a grizzly bear" as
one writer puts it. The first old male
that tumbles awkwardly ashore on St..
Paul or st. George Island will weigh
probably 500 pounds. A great thick
mantle of fat will envelop its whole
body, quivering like jelly with every
movement. 1t is upon this fat that it
will live for the next two months, for
until the breeding season is over it
will never leave the spot upon which
it settles, unless forced away.
PROPERTY RIGHTS AMONG THE SEALS
The old seal, as soon as he gets well
ashore and shakes the water out Of
his rough, straggly coat, will pick out
the spot that suits him best upon the
hard, fiat surface, sloping toward the
water, and without any hollows or
puddles in it, which the seals have
chosen for their breeding ground. 1t
will be as near the water as he can
conveniently get. By the time he is
settled there another old seal will
have come, and will want that same
c,ot Tbara ,uiu ba a tarrific hattla
in which one or the other will most
likely receive bad injuries, and may
even be killed. II the first conner is
whipped, he will take up the next
best location, and his conqueror will
keep the place fought for. If the first
conner wins the battle, the defeated
aspirant for the star site passes on to
the next best one. The seals arrive
by the hundreds in u day, and soon
the sites near the water are all taken.
The late comers never take back
seat without a fight, and the first
arrivals must do battle time and
again to maintain their ground. 1t
is only the males in the prime of life
who have the stay-there quality sufli-
ciently developed to enable them to
take and keep from the start loca-
ton near the water. Generally the
early corners, exhausted by frequent
battles, are forced back further and
further, until they occupy almost the
inner row of fifteen or twenty lots
deep. This battle for choice locations
must be kept up not only with the
latest arrivals, but with the neighbors
all around, for possession is the only
title to land recognized by seal laws.
Night and day the fighting between
the male seals is continued, no male
seal ever daring to sleepat this season
longer than five minutes at time.
This is scientific fact determined by
careful observations. The rest OF his
time is put in defending his lot from
envious neighbors or newcomers, or
in attempting to take possession Of
some one else's lot that he thinks
more eligible.
There are q dozen or more rookie
ries on the two islands, and by the
10th or 18th of June all the land upon
them has been parcelled out among
the tens of thousands of male seals
who have arrived. No seal under 6
wears of age has been allowed to
stake out claim in these seal towns.
That is a law as rigid and infexible
as those of the Medes and Persians.
Hundreds of thousands of such young
sters have arrived, but they are COM
PEELED to flock by themselves upon
unoccupied stretches of beach be-
tween the rookeries. These are called
hauling grounds, because the seals
haul themselves about over them con-
tinually, never seeming to remain
quiet moment, day or night. Even
in their short sleeps they fan them
selves continually with their hippers.
These seals are called hollus-schickies,
which is Aleutian for bachelors. The
old males are seecatchies. Along
with the bachelors are many older
males who have come too late TO get
lots in the towns, or who have been
unable to keep the lots they did stake
out. Of by themselves are the old
fellows who have been too badly in
jured in the fights to recover for a
long time, if all, and who form what
is called the hospital Males outside
of the rookery play with each other
continually, but never fight
THE MATING SEASON.
About the 18th or 18th Of June the
fop,aI Ia caola hooip IN arrivo in small