own 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!"

CHAPTER III

ATTACKED BY JAPANESE POACHERS

"That's life on a rookery," the agent said. "Fight! Capture! More fight!
But the holluschickie are different. Let's go to the hauling-grounds."

"Is that where the killing goes on?" the boy asked.

"Not quite," was the reply. "The road to the killing-grounds begins
there, though. Naturally! We don't take any seals from a rookery."

"Why not?"

"No use! They are all either old bulls, females, or pups," was the
answer. "The fur of the old sea-catches is coarse. Couldn't sell it.
Never kill a cow seal under any circumstances. That's what all the
trouble in killing seals at sea is about. You can't tell a holluschickie
from a cow seal in the water. Cruel, too. When a cow seal is on her way
to the rookery, she will have a baby seal in a few days."

"The holluschickie, then," said Colin, "don't come on the rookery at
all?"

"Never! Absolutely! The bachelors, which are young male seals five years
old and under, leave the rookery alone. The old sea-catches look after
that. Certainly! It is mutilation or death for a holluschickie to put so
much as a flipper on a rookery. They seldom try. Therefore, the
hauling-grounds are at a distance. Obviously! Sometimes, though, it is
impossible for the holluschickie to get to the sea without having to
cross the rough, rocky ground which is suitable for a rookery."

"How can they work it, then?"

"The sea-catches leave a road eight feet wide, no more, no less. This
path through the rookery gives just room for two holluschickie to pass.
The beachmasters whose harems are on either side of this road watch
them. They keep their lookout from a station right beside the road. If
one of the holluschickie touches a cow on either side of this clear
road-space, he will be attacked savagely."

"But I should think he could get away easily enough," Colin objected,
"because the sea-catch can't leave his harem."

"Can't! Old bulls are all the way along," the agent answered. "Every one
will attack a holluschickie who has once been a