756 M. ANGUSTIROSTRIS CALIFORNIAN SEA ELEPHANT. 



vented from farther retreat by the projecting cliffs. We recol- 

 lect in one instance, where sixty-five were captured, that sev- 

 eral were found showing no signs of having been either clubbed 

 or lanced, but were smothered by numbers of their kind heaped 

 upon them. The whole flock, when attacked, manifested alarm 

 by their peculiar roar, the sound of which, among the largest 

 males, is nearly as loud as the lowing of an ox, but more pro- 

 longed in one strain, accompanied by a rattling noise in the 

 throat. The quantity of blood in this species of the seal tribe 

 is supposed to be double that contained in an ox, in proportion 

 to its size. 



"After the capture the flaying begins. First, with a large 

 knife, the skin is ripped along the upper side of the body the 

 whole length, and then cut down as far as is practicable, with- 

 out rolling it over; then the coating of fat that lies between 

 the skin and flesh which may be from one to seven inches in 

 thickness, according to the size and condition of the animal is 

 cut into 'horse-pieces', about eight inches wide, and twelve to 

 fifteen long, and a puncture is made in each piece sufficiently 

 large to pass a rope through. After flensing the upper portion 

 of the body, it is rolled over, and cut all around as above de- 

 scribed. Then the ' horse-pieces ' are strung on a raft-rope (a 

 rope three fathoms long, with an eye-splice in one end), and 

 taken to the edge of the surf ; a long line is made fast to it, the 

 end of which is thrown to a boat lying just outside the break- 

 ers ; they are then hauled through .the rollers and towed to the 

 vessel, where the oil is tried out by boiling the blubber, or fat, 

 in large pots set in a brick furnace for the purpose. The oil 

 produced is superior to whale oil for lubricating purposes. 

 Owing to the continual pursuit of the animals, they have 

 become nearly if not quite extinct on the California coast, or 

 the few remaining have fled to some unknown point for secu- 

 rity." * He also states that a fat bull, eighteen feet long, taken 

 by the brig "Mary Helen", in 1852, yielded two hundred and 

 ten gallons of oil. 



* Marine Mammalia, pp. 118, 119. 



