THE SEA-LION HUNT. 473 



STOMACH- WALLS TTSI<;I> AS OIL POUCHES. Around the natives' houses, on Saint Paul ;in<l 

 Saint George, constantly appear curious objects, which, to the unaccustomed eye, resemble over- 

 grown gourds op enormous calabashes with attenuated necks; an examination proves them to be 

 the dried, distended stomach walls of the sea lion, filled with its oil ; which, unlike the offensive 

 blubber of the fur seal, boils out clear and inodorous from its fat. The flesh of an old sea lion, 

 while not very palatable, is tasteless and dry ; but the meat of a yearling is very much like veal, 

 and when properly cooked I think it is just as good; but the superiority of the sea lion meat over 

 that of the fur seal is decidedly marked. It requires great skill in the cuisine ere sausage and 

 steaks of the CuUurhinux are accepted on the table; while it does iiot, however, require much art, 

 experience, or patience for the cook to serve up the juicy ribs of a young sea-lion so that the most 

 fastidious palate will fail to relish it. 



CARING FOR THE FLESH. The carcass of the sea lion, after it is stripped of its hide, and dis- 

 emboweled, is hung up in cool weather by its hind flippers, over a rude wooden frame or "labaas," 

 as the natives call it, where, together with many more bodies of fur seals treated in the same man- 

 ner, it serves from November until the following season of May as the meat-house of the Aleut on 

 Saint Paul and Saint George. Exposed in this manner to the open weather, the natives keep their 

 seal meat almost any length of time, in winter, for use; and, like our old duck and bird hunters, 

 they say they prefer to have the meat tainted rather than fresh, declaring that it is most tender 

 and toothsome when decidedly "loud.'' 



CHINESE DEMAND FOR WHISKERS. The tough, elastic mustache bristles of the sea-lion are 

 objects of great commercial activity by the Chinese, who prize them highly for pickers to their 

 opium pipes, aud several ceremonies peculiar to their joss houses. These lip bristles of the fur- 

 seal are usually too small and too elastic for this service. The natives, however, always carefully 

 pluck them out of the Eumetopias, and get their full value in exchange. 



DIET OF THE SEA-LION. The sea-lion also, as in the case of the fur-seal, is a fish-eater, pure 

 and simple, though he, like the latter, occasionally varies his diet by consuming a limited amount 

 of juicy sea weed fronds and tender marine crustaceans ; but he hunts no animal whatever for 

 food, nor does he ever molest, up here, the sea fowl that incessantly hovers over his head, or sits 

 in flocks without fear on the surface of the waters around him. He, like his agile cousin, Callor- 

 lihiuts, is without question a mighty fisherman, familiar with every submarine haunt of his piscine 

 prey; and feeds also like his furry relative, by rejecting the heads of all fishes which have hard, 

 horny mouths, filled with large teeth or bony plates. I have never detected a sea-lion eating 

 water birds or even noticing them as they flock upon the water all around these animals. 



CALIFORNIA SEALING. Professor Jordan obtained the following information about the sea- 

 lion and hair-seal fishery of California : 



At Los Angeles County the hair-seal, which abounds along the coast, is occasionally shot for 

 its oil. Only the "bull seals" are killed. A seal will yield half a barrel of oil, worth 25 cents a 

 gallon. The galls and geuitalia are saved and sold to the Chinese, who are said to eat them. The 

 seal is a source of great annoyance to those fishermen who use gill-nets. It waits until the nets 

 are set, and then rifles them of the fish, evidently considering the whole performance an improve- 

 ment on his previous methods of fishing. He seldom much injures the nets. 



At Santa Barbara County the hair seal is killed principally for its oil, as is the sea-lion, both 

 of which animals, if distinct species, are extremely abundant on Auacapa and the other islands. 

 They breed in June and July, aud are chiefly killed from May to July. Only the pups are shot in 

 winter. The average seal makes 5 to 15 gallons of oil, worth from L'O to 25 cents a gallon. Kogers 

 Bros, sold last year 150 barrels of oil at about $15 per barrel. There is now very little profit in 



