market may be obtained, without interfering with the growth
of the herds.

Every year the seals arrive in flocks hundreds of thousands strong, and
seek a sandy beach, or some nice sunny rocks, where they can spend the
summer. In these places they establish rookeries, or villages, as they are
sometimes called.

The fathers of the families come first, arriving in April to seek out
comfortable quarters.

In June the mothers come to the island, take possession of the homes
provided for them, and pretty soon each seal mother has a nice little seal
pup to occupy her home with her.

It is a curious thing about these little seal pups that though they are
going to spend their lives in the water, they don't like the idea of it at
all, and have to be forced into the water by their mothers, and taught to
swim just as though they were little boys and girls.

Baby seals have nearly white fur when they are born, and, strange to say,
until this coat falls off and the dark one comes, their mothers never
attempt to take them to the water.

The seals are not the gentle things they appear to be, with their soft
brown eyes and their sleek coats. On the contrary, they are very fierce
and warlike if any attempt is made to interfere with their families.

When the fathers first reach the beach, and set about making the home
ready for their families, they will not allow any of the young bachelor
seals to land near the rookeries. They force them either to remain in the
water, or to go to the highlands above the village.

The bachelor seals think they have as much right to a comfortable home as
the older seals, and so they fight hard to enter the villages.

This fighting keeps up the whole summer while the seals are out of the
water, and those who have seen these battles say that "night and day, the
sound of them is like that of an approaching railway train."

So steadily does the fighting continue that the old seals have no time to
eat, and during the three or four months they stay with their families on
the beaches they never take a mouthful of food. At the end of the time,
when they leave the rookeries, they are thin and miserable, and covered
with battle scars.

The killing of the seals should be carefully arranged with a knowledge of
these habits.

The proper rules are that no mother seals, baby seals, or father seals
shall be killed, but that the hunters shall watch until the badly behaved
bachelor seals have got tired with fig