THE FIGHT OF THE OLD BULL SEALS
The quick, uneasy pitching of the boat and a sudden dash of ice-cold
spray roused the captain from the fit of abstraction into which the
sinking of his ship had plunged him.
"Step the mast, men," he said; "we've got to make for the nearest land.
It's going to be a dirty night, too."
"Did you want us to put a reef in, sir?" asked the old whaler.
"When I want a sail reefed," the captain answered shortly, "I'll tell
you."
As the mast fell into place and the sail was hoisted, the whale-boat
heeled sharply over and began to cut her way through the water at a good
speed, leaving the two prams far in the rear. The captain, who was
steering mechanically, paid no heed to them, staring moodily ahead into
the darkness. Hank looked around uneasily from time to time, then in a
few moments he spoke.
"The mate's signaling, I think, sir," he said.
Colin looked round but could only just see the outline of the larger of
the two boats, and knew it was too dark to distinguish any motions on
board her. He looked inquiringly at Hank, but the old gunner was
watching the captain.
"What does he want?" questioned the captain angrily.
"Orders, sir, I suppose," the whaler answered.
The captain felt the implied rebuke and looked at him sharply, but
although he was a strict disciplinarian, he knew Hank's worth as a
seaman of experience and kept back the sharp reply which was upon his
lips. Then turning in his seat he realized how rapidly they had sped
away from the boats they were escorting, and said:
"I'll bring her up."
He put the tiller over and brought the whale-boat up into the wind, and
in a few minutes the mate's boat and the smaller pram came alongside.
"Don't you want us to keep together, sir?" cried the mate as soon as he
was within hearing.
"Of course," the captain answered. "You can't keep up, eh?"
"Not in a breeze like this, sir," the mate declared.
"All right, then," was the response; "we'll reef." He nodded to the
gunner and the reef points were quickly tied, thus enabling the three
boats to keep together.
As the night wore on the wind increased until quite a gale was blowing,
and the whale-boat began to plunge into the seas, throwing spray every
time her nose went into it. The oilskins shone yellow and dripping in
the feeble light of a lantern and although it was nearly the end of June
a cold wind whipped the icy spume-drift from the breaking whitecaps.
"Doesn't feel much like summer, Hank!" said Colin, shivering from cold
and fatigue, also partly from reaction following his exciting adventure
with the gray whale.
"Behring Sea hasn't got much summer to boast of," the old whaler
replied; "leastwise not often. You may get one or two hot days, but when
the sun goes down the Polar current gets in its work an' it's cold."
"Where do you suppose we're going, Hank?" the boy asked, with a firm
belief that the old whaler knew everything. "I don't like to bother
Captain Murchison."
"Nor I," the gunner answered, looking toward the stern of the boat;
"let him fight his troubles out alone. As for where we're goin', I don't
know. I can't even see the stars, so I don't know which way we're
headin'."
"Do you suppose we'll strike Alaska?" Colin queried. "Or perhaps the
north of Japan? Say, it would be great if we fetched up at Kamchatka or
somewhere that nobody had ever been before!"
The lad's delight in the thought of landing at some inhospitable
northern island off the coast of Asia was so boyish that in spite of the
discomfort of their present position, the old whaler almost laughed
outright.
"Japan's a long ways south of here," he said. "We'd strike the Aleutian
or the Kuril Islands before we got near there. I reckon we ought to try
for some place on the Alaska coast, but as I remember, the wind was dead
east when we left the _Gull_ an' I don't think it's changed much."
Colin gave a long yawn and then shivered.
"I wouldn't mind being in my berth on the _Gull_!" he said longingly;
"I'm nearly dead with sleep."
"Why don't you drop off?" Hank advised. "There's nothin' you can do to
help. Here, change places with me an' you won't get so much spray."
"But you'll get it then!" the boy protested.
"If I had a dollar for every time I've got wet in a boat," the old
whaler answered, "I wouldn't have to go to sea any more."
He got up and made Colin change places.
"Are you warmer now?" he asked a minute or two later.
"Lots," the boy murmured drowsily, and in a few seconds he was fast
asleep. The old whaler gently drew the boy towards him, so that he would
be sheltered from the wind and spray, and held him safe against the
rolling and pitching of the little boat. The long hours passed slowly,
and Colin stirred and muttered in his dreams, but still he slept on
through all the wild tumult of the night, his head pillowed against Hank
and the old whaler's arm around him.
He wakened suddenly, with a whistling, roaring sound ringing in his
ears. Dawn had broken, though the sun was not yet up, and Colin shivered
with the wakening and the cold, his teeth chattering like castanets. A
damp, penetrating fog enwrapped them. Four of the sailors were rowing
slowly, and the sail had been lowered and furled while he was asleep.
Every few minutes a shout could be heard in the distance, which was
answered by one of the sailors in the whale-boat.
"Where's the mate's boat, Hank?" asked the boy, realizing he had heard
only one shout.
"She got out of hailin' distance, a little while before breakfast," the
other answered, "but that doesn't matter so much, because she can't very
well get lost now."
"But why is the sail down?"
The old whaler held up his hand.
"Do you hear that noise?" he asked.
"Of course I hear it," the boy answered; "that's what woke me up. But
what is it?" he continued, as the roar swelled upon the wind.
"What does it sound like?" the gunner asked him.
The boy listened carefully for a minute or two and then shook his head.
"Hard to say," he answered. "It sounds like a cross between Niagara and
a circus."
Scotty, who had overheard this, looked round.
"That's not bad," he said; "that's just about what it does sound like."
"But what is the cause of it, Hank?" the boy queried again. "I never
heard such a row!"
"Fur seals!" was the brief reply.
"Seals?" said Colin, jumping up eagerly. "Oh, where?"
"Sit down, boy," interrupted the captain sternly; "you'll see enough of
seals before you get home."
"All right, Captain Murchison," Colin answered; "I'm in no hurry to be
home."
In spite of his recent loss the captain could not help a grim smile
stealing over his face at the boy's readiness for adventure, no matter
where it might lead. But he had been a rover in his boyhood himself, and
so he said no more.
"Why, there must be millions of seals to make as much noise as that!"
Colin objected.
"There aren't; at least, not now," was Hank's reply. "There were tens of
millions of fur seals in these waters when I made my first trip out here
in 1860, but they've been killed off right an' left, same as the
buffalo. The government has to protect 'em now, an' there's no pelagic
sealin' allowed at all."
"What's pelagic sealing?" asked Colin.
"Killing seals at sea," the whaler answered. "That's wrong, because you
can't always tell a young male from a female seal in the water, an' the
females ought never to be killed. But you'll learn all about it. Beg
pardon, sir," Hank continued, speaking to the captain, "but by the noise
of the seals those must be either the Pribilof or the Commander
Islands?"
"Pribilof, by my reckoning," the captain answered. "Do you hear anything
of the third boat?"
"No, sir," answered the old whaler, after shouting a loud "Ahoy!" to
which but one answer was returned, "but we'll see her, likely, when the
fog lifts."
"Doesn't lift much here," the captain said. "But with this offshore
wind, they ought to hear the seals three or four miles away."
In the meantime the whale-boat was forging through the water slowly and
the noise of the seals grew louder every minute. The sun was rising, but
the fog was so dense that it was barely possible to tell which was the
east.
"Funny kind of fog," said Colin; "seems to me it's about as wet as the
water!"
"Reg'lar seal fog," Hank replied. "If it wasn't always foggy the seals
wouldn't haul out here, an' anyway, there's always a lot of fog around
a rookery. Must be the breath of so many thousands o' seals, I reckon."
[Illustration: SPEARING SEALS AT SEA.
Pelagic sealing by Aleut natives now forbidden by the governments of the
United States, Great Britain, Russia, and Japan.
_Courtesy of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries._]
"Pretty things, seals," said the boy.
"Where did you ever see any?" his friend queried.
"Oh, lots of places," Colin answered, "circuses and aquariums and places
like that. I even saw a troupe of them on the stage once, playing ball.
They put up a good game, too."
"Those weren't the real fur seals," Hank replied; "what you saw were the
common hair seals, an' they're not the same at all. You can't keep fur
seals alive in a tank!"
"There are two fur seals in the aquarium of the Fisheries Building at
Washington," interposed the captain, "but those are the only two."
"There!" cried the boy, pointing at the water; "there's one now!"
"You'll see them by hundreds in a few minutes, boy," the captain said.
"I think I make out land."
As he spoke, an eddy of wind blew aside part of the fog, revealing
through the rift a low-lying island. Within a minute the fog had closed
down again, but the glimpse had been enough to give the captain his
bearings. The noise from the seal-rookery had grown deafening, so that
the men had to shout to one another in the boat and presently--and quite
unexpectedly--the boat was in the midst of dozens upon dozens of seals,
throwing themselves out of the water, standing on their hind flippers,
turning somersaults, and performing all manner of antics.
"Why don't we land?" asked Colin, as he noticed that the boat was
running parallel with the shore instead of heading directly for it.
"Land on a seal-rookery?" said Hank. "Haven't you had trouble enough
with whales so far?"
"Would seals attack a boat?" asked Colin in surprise.
"No, you couldn't make 'em," was the instant reply, "but I never heard
of a boat landin' at a rookery. The row would begin when you got
ashore."
Gradually the boat drew closer to the land, as close, indeed, as was
possible along the rocky shore, and then the land receded, forming a
shallow bay flanked by two low hills on one side and one sharper hill on
the other. The captain rolled up his chart and headed straight for the
shore.
"St. Paul, I reckon," said Hank, as the outlines of the land showed
clearly, "but I don't jus' seem to remember it."
"Yes, that's St. Paul," the captain agreed. "It has changed since your
time, Hank. There has been a lot of building since the government took
hold."
"Why, it looks quite civilized!" exclaimed Colin in surprise, as he saw
the well-built, comfortable frame houses and a stone church-spire which
stood out boldly from the hill above the wharf.
"When I first saw St. Paul," said the old whaler, "it looked just about
the way it was when the Russians left it--huts and shacks o' the worst
kind an' the natives were kep' just about half starved."
"It's different nowadays," said the captain as they drew near the wharf,
putting under his arm the tin box that held the ship's papers. "The
Aleuts are regular government employees now and they have schools and
good homes and fair wages. Everything is done to make them comfortable.
I was here last year and could hardly believe it was the same settlement
I saw fifteen years ago."
It was still early morning when the boat was made fast to the wharf, and
Colin was glad to stretch his legs after having slept in a cramped
position all night. The damp fog lay heavily over everything, but the
villagers had been aroused and the group of sailors was soon surrounded
by a crowd, curious to know what had happened. Hank, who could speak a
'pigeon' language of mixed Russian and Aleut, was the center of a group
composed of some of the older men, while Colin graphically described to
all those who knew English (the larger proportion) the fight with the
gray whale, and told of the sinking of the _Gull_ by the big finback,
maddened by the attack of the killers. He had just finished a stirring
recital of the adventures when the other two boats from the _Gull_
loomed up out of the fog and made fast to the wharf.
Hearing that the only breakfast the shipwrecked men had been able to get
was some cold and water-soaked provender from the boat, two or three of
the residents hurried to their homes on hospitable errands bent, and in
a few minutes most of the men were thawing out and allaying the pangs of
hunger with steaming mugs of hot coffee and a solid meal. So, when the
captain came looking for Colin that he might take him to the Fisheries
agent's house, he found the lad--who was thoroughly democratic in his
ways--breakfasting happily with the sailors and recounting for the
second time the thrills and perils of the preceding day.
Rejoining the captain an hour or so later at the house to which he had
been directed, Colin was effusively greeted by the assistant to the
agent, a young fellow full of enthusiasm over the work the Bureau of
Fisheries was doing with regard to fur seals. A natural delicacy had
kept him from troubling Captain Murchison, but as soon as he discovered
that Colin was interested in the question and anxious to find out all he
could about seals, he hailed the opportunity with delight.
"I've just been aching for a chance to blow off steam," he said. "It's
an old story to the people here. Obviously! I don't think they half
realize how worth while it all is. I'm glad to have you here," he
continued, "not only so that we can help you after all your dangers, but
so that I can show you what we do."
"I'm still more glad to be here," Colin replied, after thanking him.
"I've been trying to persuade Father to let me join the Bureau, but this
is such an out-of-the-way place that I never expected to be able to see
it for myself."
"It is a little out of the way," the official replied. "But in some
ways, I think it's the most important place in the entire world so far
as fisheries are concerned. It's the one strategic point for a great
industry. Of course!"
"Why is it so important, Mr. Nagge?" Colin queried. "Just because of the
seals, or are there other fisheries here?"
"Just seals," was the reply, in the jerky speech characteristic of the
man. "Greatest breeding-place in the world. You'll see. Nothing like it
anywhere else. And, what's more, it's almost the last. This is the only
fort left to prevent the destruction not of a tribe--but of an entire
species in the world of life. Certainly!"
"Calling it a fort seems strange," Colin remarked.
"Well, isn't it? It's the heroic post, the forlorn hope, the last stand
of the battle-line," the Fisheries enthusiast replied. "All the nations
of the world were deliberately allowing all the fur seals to be killed
off. Uncle Sam stopped it. It's not too late yet. The Japanese
seal-pirates must be exterminated absolutely! Could you run a ranch if
every time a steer or cow got more than three miles away from the corral
anybody could come along and shoot it? Of course not. Obviously!"
"But this isn't a ranch!"
"Why not? Same principle," the assistant agent answered. "Ranchers breed
cattle in hundreds or thousands. We breed seals in hundreds of
thousands; yes, in millions. And a fur seal is worth more than a steer.
Oh, yes!"
"Do seals breed as largely still?" Colin asked in surprise.
"Would if they had the chance," was the indignant answer. "Undoubtedly
millions and millions have been killed in the last fifty years. Takes
time to build up, too! Only one baby seal is born at a time. A run-down
herd can't increase so very fast. But we're getting there. Certainly!"
"Our gunner was telling me," Colin said, "that killing seals at sea was
the cause of all the trouble."
"Yes. Lately. Before that, rookery after rookery had been visited and
every seal butchered. Old and young alike. No mercy. Worst kind of
cruelty."
"But hasn't the sea trouble been stopped?" queried the boy. "I thought
it had, but you said something just now about seal-pirates."
"Stopped officially," his informant said. "Can't kill a seal in the
ocean, not under any consideration. That is, by law. Not in American
waters. Nor in Russian waters. Nor in Japanese waters. Nor in the open
sea. International agreement determines that. Of course. But lots of
people break laws. Obviously! Big profit in it. There's a lot of killing
going on still. Stop it? When we can!"
"But how about killing them on land?" Colin asked. "You do that, I know,
because I've read that the Bureau of Fisheries even looks after the
selling of the skins. While it may be all right, it looks to me as
though you were killing them off, anyhow. What's the good of saving them
in the water if you wipe them out when they get ashore."
"You don't understand!" his friend said. "Got anything to do right now?"
"Not so far as I know," Colin answered.
"You've had breakfast?"
"Yes, thanks," the boy answered, "and I tell you it tasted good after a
night in the boat."
"Come over to the rookery," the assistant agent said. "I'm going. I
count the seals every day. That is, as nearly as I can. Tell you all
about it. If you like, we'll go on to the killing grounds afterwards.
Yes? Put on your hat."
Colin realized that his host seldom had a listener, and as he was really
anxious to learn all that he could about the fur seals, these creatures
that kept up the deafening roar that sounded like Niagara, he followed
interestedly.
"Looks a little as if it might clear," he suggested, as they left the
house. "We could stand some sunshine after this fog."
The other shook his head.
"Don't want sunshine," he said. "Fog's much better."
"What for?" asked Colin in surprise. "Why should any one want fog rather
than sunshine?"
"Fur seals do," was the emphatic response. "No seals on any other groups
of islands in the North Pacific. Just here and Commander Islands. Why?"
"Because they are foggier than others?" hazarded Colin at a guess.
"Exactly. Fur seals live in the water nearly all year. Water is colder
than air. Seals are warm-blooded animals, too--not like fish. They've
got to keep out the cold."
"Is that why they have such fine fur?"
"Obviously. And," the Fisheries official continued, "under that close
warm fur they have blubber. Lots of it."
"Blubber like whales?"
"Just the same. Fur and blubber keeps 'em warm in the cold water. Too
much covering for the air. Like wearing North Pole clothing at the
Equator. If the sun comes out they just about faint. On bright days the
young seals make for the water. Those that have to stay on the rookery
lie flat on their back and fan themselves. Certainly! Use their flippers
just the way a woman uses a regular fan. See 'em any time."
Colin looked incredulously at his companion.
"I'm not making it up," the other said. "They fan themselves with their
hind flippers, too. Just as easy."
"I think they must be the noisiest things alive," said Colin, putting
his fingers in his ears as they rounded the point and the full force of
the rookery tumult reached them.
"The row never stops," the assistant agent admitted. "Just as much at
night as daytime. Seals are used to swimming under water where light is
dimmer. Darkness makes little difference. Seemingly! Don't notice it
after a while."
"The queer part of it is," the boy said, listening intently, "that there
seem to be all sorts of different noises. It's just as I said coming
into the bay, it sounds like a menagerie. I'm sure I can hear sheep!"
"Can't tell the cry of a cow fur seal from the bleating of an old
sheep," was the reply. "The pup seal 'baa-s' just like a lamb, too.
Funny, sometimes. On one of the smaller islands one year we had a flock
of sheep. Caused us all sorts of trouble. The sheep would come running
into the seal nurseries looking for their lambs when they heard a pup
seal crying. The lambs would mistake the cry of the cow seal for the
bleating of their mothers."
"Why do you call the mother seal a cow seal?" asked the boy.
"Usual name," was the reply.
"Then why is a baby seal a pup?" asked Colin bewildered. "I should think
it ought to be called a calf!"
The Fisheries official laughed.
"Seal language is the most mixed-up lingo I know," he said. "Mother
seal is called a 'cow,' yet the baby is called a 'pup.' The cow seals
are kept in a 'harem,' which usually means a group of wives. The whole
gathering is called a 'rookery,' though there are no rooks or other
birds around. The big 'bull' seals are sometimes called 'Sea-Catches' or
'Beachmasters.' The two-year-olds and three-year-olds are called
'Bachelors.' The 'pups,' too, have their 'nurseries' to play in."
But Colin still looked puzzled.
"Our gunner was talking about 'holluschickie'?" he said. "Are those a
different kind of seal?"
"No," was the reply, "that's the old Russian-native name for bachelors.
There are a lot of native words for seals, but we only use that one and
'kotickie' for the pups."
"If the cow seals bleat," said Colin, "and the pups 'baa' like a lamb,
what is the cry of the beachmaster?"
"He makes the most noise," the agent said. "Never stops. Can you hear a
long hoarse roar? Sounds like a lion!"
"Of course I can hear it," the boy answered; "I thought that must be a
sea-lion."
"A sea-lion's cry is deeper and not so loud," his friend replied. "No.
That roar is the bull seal's challenge. You're near enough to hear a
sort of gurgling growl?"
"Yes," said Colin, "I can catch it quite clearly."
"That's a bull talking to himself. Then there's a whistle when a fight
is going on. When they're fighting, too, they have a spitting cough.
Sounds like a locomotive starting on a heavy grade. Precisely!"
"Do they fight much?" the boy asked.
"Ever so often!" his informant replied. "Can't you hear the puffing?
That shows there's a fight going on. I've seldom seen a rookery without
a mix-up in progress. That is, during the early part of the season after
the cows have started to haul up. There's not nearly as much of it now,
though, as there used to be."
"Could I see a fight?" the boy asked eagerly.
"Hardly help seeing one," was the reply. "Watch now. We're just at the
rookery. Immediately!"
Turning sharply to the left, the older man led the way between two piles
of stones heaped up so as to form a sort of wall, and shut off at the
sea end.
"What's this for?" asked Colin.
"Path through the rookery. Want to count the seals every once in a
while," the agent said. "Must have some sort of gangway. Obviously!
Couldn't get near enough, otherwise."
"Why not?" queried Colin. "Would the beachmasters attack you?"
"They won't start it," was the reply. "Sea-catch keeps quiet unless he
thinks you're going to attack his harem. About two weeks ago, I only
just escaped. Narrow squeeze. Wanted to get a photograph of one of the
biggest sea-catches I had ever seen. Took a heavy camera. The sea-catch
didn't seem excited. Not particularly. So, I came up quite close to
him."
"How close, Mr. Nagge?"
"Ten or twelve feet. Just about. I got under the cloth. Focused him all
right. Then slipped in my plate. Just going to press the bulb when he
charged. Straight for me. No warning. I squeezed the bulb, anyhow;
grabbed the camera and ran. Promptly!"
"Did he chase you far?"
"A few yards. I knew there was no real danger. Best of it was that the
plate caught the bull right in the act of charging! I've got a print up
at the house. Show you when we get home!"
"I'd like to see it, ever so much," the boy answered.
As they came to a gap in the wall, the agent halted.
"There!" he said. "That's a rookery."
In spite of all that he had heard before of the numbers of seals, and
although the deafening noise was in a sense a preparation, Colin was
dazed at his first sight of a big seal rookery. For a moment he could
not take it in. He seemed to be overlooking a wonderful beach of rounded
boulders, smooth and glistening like polished steel; here and there
pieces of gaunt gray rock projected above and at intervals of about
every fifteen to forty feet towered a huge figure like a walrus with a
mane of grizzled over-hair on the shoulders and long bristly
yellowish-white whiskers. For a moment the boy stood bewildered, then
suddenly it flashed upon him that this wonderful carpet of seeming
boulders, this gleaming, moving pageantry of gray, was composed of
living seals.
"Why, there are millions of them!" he cried.
Right from the water's edge back halfway to the cliffs, and as far as
the eye could see into the white sea-mist, every inch of the ground was
covered. Looking at those closest to him, Colin noticed that they lay in
any and every possible attitude, head up or down, on their backs or
sides, or curled up in a ball; wedged in between sharp rocks or on a
level stretch--position seemed to make no difference. Nor were any of
them still for a minute, for even those which were asleep twitched
violently and wakened every few minutes. And over the thousands of
silver-gray cow seals, the sea-catches, the lords of the harem, three or
four times the size of their mates, stood watch and ward unceasingly.
"Why do you herd them so close together?" asked Colin. "I should have
thought there was lots of room on the beaches of the island."
"They herd themselves," the agent said. "Don't go anywhere unless it is
crowded. The more a place is jammed, the more anxious they are to get
there. Newcomers won't go to empty harems. Unhappy with only one or two
other cows. Try and find room in a crowded bunch where one sea-catch is
looking after thirty females."
"But," said Colin, looking at the group which was nearest to him, "there
are a lot of little baby seals in there! They'll get trodden on!"
"They are trodden on. Often," said the agent. "Can't be helped. Only a
few pups right in the harems and they are all small. Obviously! Go away
when they are a week old. Wander from the harem to find playfellows.
Make up 'pods' or nurseries. Sometimes four or five hundred in one
nursery. Stay until the end of the season. There's a pod of pups," he
continued, pointing up the beach; "about sixty of them, I should judge.
Happy-looking? Clearly!"
"They look like big black kittens," said Colin, as he watched them
tumbling about on the pebbly beach, "and just as full of fun. Can they
swim as soon as they are born, Mr. Nagge?"
"Seals have to learn to swim. Same as boys," he answered. "They teach
themselves, apparently! Young seal, thrown into deep water, will drown.
Queer. Become wonderful swimmers, too."
"About how long does it take them to learn?" Colin asked.
"Don't begin until they are three weeks old," was the reply. "Practise
several hours a day. Swim well in about a month."
"Why don't the father or the mother seals teach them?" queried the boy.
"A sea-catch doesn't see anything outside the harem. As long as a pup is
within twelve feet of him, he will fight on the instant if the baby is
in danger. Once it is in the nursery the bull seal forgets the little
one's existence. He couldn't leave, anyway. Some other sea-catch would
seize the harem."
"You mean that the old seal can't get away at all?"
"Not at all," was the reply.
"Then what does he get to eat?" asked Colin in surprise, "do the cow
seals bring him food?"
"Not a bite. No. He doesn't eat at all. Not all summer."
"Never gets a bite of anything? I should think he'd starve to death,"
cried the lad.
"Fasts for nearly four months. From the time a sea-catch hauls up in May
and preempts the spot he has chosen for his harem he doesn't leave that
spot eight to sixteen feet square until late in August. Stays right
there. He's active enough in some ways. No matter how much he flounders
around, he keeps right on his own harem ground. He could hardly get
away from it if he tried."
[Illustration: HOLLUSCHICKIE HAULING UP FROM THE SEA.
Rare sketch, taken before ever a camera was seen on the Pribilof
Islands. This beach, with many others, is now deserted by the depletion
of the seal herd.
_Courtesy of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries._]
[Illustration: OLD BULL-SEALS FIGHTING.
Rare sketch, taken on the Gorbatch Rookery, St. Paul's Island, forty
years ago. These combats are growing rarer as the seal herd grows
smaller and the rivalry between the beach-masters is less intense. The
date on the sketch shows it to have been made before the cow-seals
hauled up.
_Courtesy of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries._]
"Why not?"
"He couldn't leave his own harem without getting into the next one.
Obviously!" the agent promptly replied. "And he'd have to fight that
beachmaster. Evidently! And so on every few feet he went. Besides, the
very moment his back was turned a neighboring bull would steal some of
his cows. Certainly! Or, an idle bull would try and beat him out."
"Which are the idle bulls?" asked Colin.
"Those fellows at the back who came late or were beaten in the fight for
places. They would charge down and take the harem, if he left it."
"Well, then, how does he sleep?"
"Doesn't sleep much," was the reply; "just little catnaps. Five or ten
minutes at a time, perhaps. Light sleepers, too. If a cow tries to leave
or an intruder comes near he wakes right up. Immediately! He's on the
alert, night and day." The agent laughed. "Eternal vigilance is the bull
seal's motto, all right!"
"But how can they stand it without food and without sleep?" Colin asked.
"That's over three months of fasting. And it isn't like an animal
that's asleep all winter. It seems to be their busiest time, fighting
and watching and all that sort of thing!"
"They live on their blubber," the agent explained. "In the spring they
haul up heavy and fat. Can hardly move around they're so fleshy. It's
the end of June now. You see! Many bulls are loaded with fat still. By
the end of next month, though, they'll be getting thin. Some of 'em are
like skeletons when they leave the rookeries in August. They'll fight to
the end, though."
"But if they leave each other's harems alone," Colin objected, "I don't
see any cause for a fight."
"The cows don't all come at the same time. Perhaps for six weeks there
are cows coming all the time. Those beachmasters who have harems nearest
the water want their family first and there's fighting all along the
water's edge, then. Other cows have to make their way inshore; any of
the sea-catches may grab them. Wait a minute and watch. You'll see the
scramble going on somewhere. There are two bulls fighting there," he
added, pointing to a combat in progress some distance off, "and there's
another--and another."
"Is that one of the new cows just coming in from the water?" asked
Colin, pointing to the shore, where a female seal, quietly and without
attracting attention, had landed near one of the large harems.
"Yes," the agent said. "Just watch her a while. You'll see how the
fighting begins."
Moving quietly and slowly and making just as little disturbance as
possible, the incoming seal made her way through and over the recumbent
seals, keeping as far as she could from the beachmasters. Those huge
monarchs of the waterside eyed her closely, but the harems were full to
the last inch of ground and they let her pass, the cow seal remaining
quiet as long as the beachmaster was watching, then creeping on a yard
or two.
"She'll get caught by the next one," said Colin. "See, there's just
about room enough in his harem for one more."
But the cow managed to make her way past, the old bull being engrossed
in watching a neighboring sea-catch whom he suspected of designs upon
his home. She had only succeeded in reaching a point about six harems
inland, however, when a bull with a small group of only about twelve
cows, suddenly reached out with his strong neck, grabbed her by the
back with his sharp teeth and threw her on the rocks with the rest of
his company. As the sea-catch weighed over four hundred pounds and the
cow not more than eighty--the poor creature was flung down most cruelly.
"The brute!" cried Colin.
But for some reason the cow was dissatisfied with her new master and
tried to escape. The old sea-catch made a lunge forward and caught her
by the back of the neck, biting viciously as he did so, in such wise
that the teeth tore away the skin and flesh, making two raw and ugly
wounds.
Colin's indignation was without bounds.
"I'd like to smash that old beast!" he said, and if the agent had not
been there to stop him the boy would have jumped over the low wall and
gone to the assistance of the cow seal.
"That's going on all the time," the agent said. "You can't settle the
affairs of ten thousand families. Not offhand that way. You'd be kept
busy if you tried to fight the battles of every female that hauls up on
St. Paul rookery."
"But see," cried Colin, "he's going after her again!"
This time the sea-catch was evidently angry, for he shook the cow as a
dog does a rat and tossed her back into the very center of the harem,
standing over her and growling angrily. The agent looked on tranquilly.
"There's going to be trouble," he said. "See that idle bull coming?"
He pointed to the back of the rookery, and Colin saw a sea-catch of good
size, though not as large as the bull whose savage attack on the cow had
excited Colin's resentment, come plunging down through the rookery with
the clumsy lope of the excited seal. The cow squirmed from under the
threatening fangs of her captor, but just as he was about to punish her
still more severely, he caught sight of the intruder, and, with a
vicious snap, he whirled round to the defense. The newcomer, though
powerful, showed the dark-brown rather than the grizzled over-hair of
the older bull, but while he had youth on his side, he was not the
veteran of hundreds of battles.
Both stood upright for a moment, watching each other keenly, but with
their heads averted, then the younger bull, with a forward movement so
rapid that it could hardly be followed, struck downward with his long
teeth to the point where the front flipper joins the body. It was a
clever stroke, but the old bull knew all the tricks of warfare and
turned the flipper in so that the teeth of his opponent only gashed the
skin, and at the same time the old bull jerked his head up and sidewise,
and sank his teeth deep into the side of the neck of the younger bull.
"He's got him, what a shame!" cried Colin, whose sympathies were all
with the younger fighter.
The old sea-catch, paying no attention to the roaring and whistling of
his wounded rival, kept his teeth fast-clenched in a bulldog-like grip
and braced himself against the repeated lunges the other made to get
free. There could be but one result to this and, with an agonized
wrench, the younger bull pulled himself free--tearing out several inches
of skin and leaving a gaping wound from which the blood streamed down.
But he was not defeated yet!
Facing his more powerful enemy, roaring unceasingly and with the shrill
piping whistle of battle, the younger bull fairly swelled with exertion
and rage until he seemed almost the size of his big foe, his head darted
from side to side quick as a flash, and the revengeful, passionate
eyes--so different from the limpid, gentle glance of the cow
seals--flashed furiously as the blood poured down and reddened the
rocks around him.
Again it was the younger bull who took the aggressive and, after a
couple of feints, he reared and struck high for the face, just grazing
the cheek of the older bull and pulling out several of the stiff
bristles on which his teeth happened to close, springing back in time to
escape the double sickle-stroke of the sea-catch. The old bull roared
loudly and sprang forward, getting a firm hold of the younger by the
skin behind the muscles of the shoulders. But he was a second too late,
for as he closed his grip, the smaller fighter shifted and struck down,
a hard clean blow, reaching the coveted point and half-tearing the
flipper from the body.
Undeterred by the injury, though the pain must have been intense, the
old bull threw his weight upon the younger, bending him far over as
though to break the spine. Seals cannot move backward, and the smaller
fighter was almost overbalanced. Then, seizing his chance, the old
beachmaster let go his hold upon the other's back and got in a crashing
blow at the same point where he had torn open the neck before, this time
sinking his teeth so far in that the muscle of the shoulder showed
plainly, and an instant later, although there seemed scarcely time to
strike a second blow, he swept down the body with his long, sharp teeth,
catching the younger at the flipper-joint, and inflicting a wound almost
exactly similar to that which he had received.
Quick as a flash, the younger combatant gave up the fight. But as he
turned, instead of merely crawling away defeated, he made a sudden
convulsive sprawl which the older bull was not expecting, and dug his
teeth into the cow who had given rise to all the trouble, and lifted her
bodily. The old beachmaster, his mane bristling with rage, made after
him, but the younger bull, although he was forced to move on the stump
of his wounded flipper, held fast to his prize, even when the victor
inflicted a fourth fearful wound.
But before the old sea-catch could turn the plucky youngster, he saw two
other bulls sidling towards his harem, intending to steal his cows while
he was off guard, and he lumbered back to repel the new intruders. In
the meantime, the young bull was attacked on his way to his own station
by three other bulls near whose harems he had to pass, but he made no
resistance and, though bleeding from a dozen wounds, he struggled on,
leaving a gory trail in his wake, but gripping with grim determination
the cow he had almost given his life to secure. When at last he reached
his own station, he was a mass of blood from head to foot, his flesh was
hanging from him in strips and one of his fore-flippers was dangling
uselessly.
"He put up a plucky fight, anyway," said Colin, "even if he did get
licked."
But it was for the poor cow seal that Colin felt the most sympathy. She
lay upon the rocks where her second captor had thrown her, absolutely
unconscious and seemingly almost dead, wounded in several places and
covered with blood and sand, a wretched contrast to the pretty, gentle
animal which the boy had seen emerge from the water not fifteen minutes
before.
"It's a shame," Colin said, speaking a little chokingly. "I didn't know
any animals could be so brutal."
The agent glanced at him quickly.
"The beachmasters are brutes," he said, "but mostly among themselves.
Notice. The bull isn't even licking his wounds. He's pretty well used
up, too. They're always too proud to show that they feel their hurts.
Evidently! Even when they have been almost torn to pieces."
"Then you think he won't die?"
"Not a bit of it," the agent said cheerfully. "He'll be ready for
another fight to-morrow."
"But how about the poor cow? She looks about dead now," said Colin.
"Not as bad as it looks! She's all right," his friend replied. "Those
wounds don't go down into vital parts. They usually just reach the
blubber. There isn't a sea-catch on the rookery that hasn't had from ten
to twenty fights already this year. Most of 'em have been at it for
several seasons. Yet you can hardly notice a scar on them. As for the
mother seal, she will probably have a baby seal to-morrow. In a week the
wounds will all have healed over. Cat may have nine lives, but a seal
has ninety!"