He was scarred all over with the marks of savage fights , but he was always ready for just one fight more . He would put his head on one side , as though he were afraid to look his enemy in the face ; then he would shoot it out like lightning , and when the big teeth were firmly fixed on the other seal 's neck , the other seal might get away if he could , but Sea Catch would not help him . Yet Sea Catch never chased a beaten seal , for that was against the Rules of the Beach . He only wanted room by the sea for his nursery . But as there were forty or fifty thousand other seals hunting for the same thing each spring , the whistling , bellowing , roaring , and blowing on the beach was something frightful . From a little hill called Hutchinson 's Hill , you could look over three and a half miles of ground covered with fighting seals ; and the surf was dotted all over with the heads of seals hurrying to land and begin their share of the fighting . They fought in the breakers , they fought in the sand , and they fought on the smooth-worn basalt rocks of the nurseries , for they were just as stupid and unaccommodating as men . Their wives never came to the island until late in May or early in June , for they did not care to be torn to pieces ; and the young two - , three - , and four-year-old seals who had not begun housekeeping went inland about half a mile through the ranks of the fighters and played about on the sand dunes in droves and legions , and rubbed off every single green thing that grew . They were called the holluschickie -- the bachelors -- and there were perhaps two or three hundred thousand of them at Novastoshnah alone . Sea Catch had just finished his forty-fifth fight one spring when Matkah , his soft , sleek , gentle-eyed wife , came up out of the sea , and he caught her by the scruff of the neck and dumped her down on his reservation , saying gruffly : `` Late as usual . Where have you been ? '' It was not the fashion for Sea Catch to eat anything during the four months he stayed on the beaches , and so his temper was generally bad . Matkah knew better than to answer back . She looked round and cooed : `` How thoughtful of you . You 've taken the old place again . '' `` I should think I had , '' said Sea Catch . `` Look at me ! '' He was scratched and bleeding in twenty places ; one eye was almost out , and his sides were torn to ribbons . `` Oh , you men , you men ! '' Matkah said , fanning herself with her hind flipper .
`` Why ca n't you be sensible and settle your XXXXX quietly ?
breakers enemy fight mile places ribbons seals side teeth wives