Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-01-07

/ meet my mates in the morning. a broken, scat
Men shoot ia the water and club the
land:
Men drive TO the salt house, like silly sheep
And still we sing Lukannon- before the seaIers
came
Wheel down. wheel down to southwark oh.
t;ooverOoska. go,
Ere empty rs the sharks egg the winter filings
The beaches Of Iukannon shall know their sons
no more
But it all goes back to the natnraiists.
1t is primarily a natural history question,
and upon that basis the solution has been
sought
Nobody knows much about the seals in
winter. except that they are somewhere
in the warmer ocean. In the early sum
mer, however they are to be found IN
mutituies as they seek their breeding
grounds which they do with utmost regu-
larity. and so strong homine instinct
that all their vicissitudes have failed to
drive them to new places. Nor, numerous
they once We're in all seas have the
herds commingled or visited any rock
cries hut their own. There are southern
herds as well northern. The eialapa-
COS, LoboS, Guada lupe, the F'uegian and
other islands off the southern Americas.
Africa, Australia and New Zealand once
yiel0ed sealskins which supported impor-
tant trade.
Most of these herds are now inconsider-
able, however, or are entirely destroyed.
through ignorant or wanton waste, and
the northern herds have been steadily
tending toward similar humiliation. Rus
sia on the Commander Islands. has now
the largest herd next to that Of the Prib'-
lofs There is but one other important
northern breeding ground and that is
Robben Island. formerly possession of
Russia, but since the kusso-Japanese war
belonging to Japan
Few things are more absurd and con-
Trajectory than the nomenclature or seals
and sealing. There IS the seal fishery,
although, properly conducted, seal killing
is done on land by means of clubs. and
the animal itself is not fish but man.
NAL. 1t is. i'll fact. not true seal but
more nearly bear-a sea bear, which.
however. congregates in herds. And the
herds. when pursued in the pelag1c hsh-
cry, fall victims to hunters VINO Kill With
shotguns and rifles.
Next, moreover. it appears that the fur
seal on its breeding ground is on rock
cry. One clingS to the bovine term for
some of the males. which are called bulls.
and for the females. which are cows, but
the rest Of the males are bachelors and
the young are pups. while the domestic
establishments supply an oriental touch
by being known q S haremS. But this rare
mixture of metaphors is so fortified by
usage that purists have wisely spent their
time at other things
K <
Some time in May. usually, the seals
begin to arrive on the islands, the males
coming first and establishing possession
each to his selected territory, TO which
he maintains his right by combat: the
breeding males, these are. the bulls of
seven years and over. The battles are
fierce, but victory is always TO the older
bulls. whose experience gives them as
surance and prowess the younger bulls
have not. The younger bulls. therefore.
must take what place is left, and in large
numbers they must do without. The
bachelors. or the younger males, mean
while have been arriving, put they haul
up in a community to themselves. quite
outside the harem precincts. Here. after
the rookery battles. they are joined by
some of the idle bulls, or ''quitters,' who
have either left their places in disgust
or been driven off by the harem mas
terS
After the bulls are established in their
territory, the COWS arrive OF the earlier