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HARD WICKE 'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



each skin taken, are realized from the Alaska Com- 

 mercial Company, to whom the islands are leased, 

 and the breeding herd still maintained undiminished ; 

 so that a permanent source of industry and profit is 

 established, which, should nothing unforeseen occur, 

 may continue for an indefinite period. What a lesson 

 to the Governments interested in the northern seal 

 fisheiy, both in prudence and humanity ! 



In the South Seas, the fur seals, being unprotected, 

 have been nearly exterminated, slaughtered without 

 regard to sex or age, and their skins so carelessly 

 cured that in one instance 100,000 rotted on the 

 voyage home, and had to be dug out of the ship's hold ! 

 Well might a correspondent of Mr. Clark's exclaim, "I 

 should as soon expect to meet a sea-lion on London 

 Bridge as on any one of the islands in Bass's Strait ! " 



I will now turn briefly to the other section of the 

 Eared seals, the Sea-lions. 



Steller, the naturalist to Behring's second expedi- 

 tion in the year 1741, discovered a sea-lion, to which 

 he gave the name of Leo marinus, and first described, 

 in a paper published after the death of its author, in 

 the " Transactions of the St. Petersburg Academy 

 for 1751." Thisspecies, Otaria Stellcri [Euiiictopias 

 Sfellcri of Gray), inhabits Behring's Straits, and the 

 coasts and islands of the North Pacific, its range ex- 

 tending westward to Kamschatka and the islands of 

 the Ochotsk Sea, and southward along the west coast 

 of North America to California and the Galapagos 

 Islands. The adult male varies much in colour from 

 dull grey to black or reddish-brown ; the head and 

 neck are much elongated, the upper lip furnished 

 with strong flexible whiskers of a whitish colour ; the 

 eyes full and expressive, especially when excited ; 

 ears cylindrical, tapering, short, and lying nearly in 

 a line with the body. The female is of a light brown 

 colour. The total length of the full-grown male is 

 about twelve feet, that of the female a little over six 

 feet. Many of my readers have doubtless seen the 

 pair of Steller's sea-lions now living in the Brighton 

 Aquarium ; to those who liave not, the accompanying 

 figure (fig. 71) will convey an idea of their general 

 appearance. For an interesting account of the habits 

 of this species in confinement and an excellent figure, 

 I beg to refer the reader to an article by Mr. Lee in 

 Land and Water iox February 5th, 1876. 



Although not yielding the beautiful fur of com- 

 merce, almost every part of this useful animal seems 

 to be of value to the natives of the coasts on which it 

 is found : the skin forms excellent leather for boats 

 and tents, the flesh is used for winter food ; from the 

 lining of the throat tlie legs of their boots are made, 

 and the soles from the skin of tlieir flippers ; a large 

 quantity of oil is extracted from their blubber ; even 

 their stomachs, intestines, and sinews, have their 

 uses, and the whiskers are sent to China, there to be 

 used as ornaments by tlie Celestials. In its habits 

 this species greatly resembles the preceding. Scam- 

 mon says that, like the fur sea), it congregates in 



great numbers at the breeding time, which takes 

 place on the Californian coast from May to August, 

 and upon the shores of Alaska from June to October ; 

 but in disposition it is much less shy, frequenting 

 "not only remote and secluded places, but also 

 thickly-inhabited coasts ; entering inland bays and 

 rivers ; at times disporting itself among the shipping, 

 and quite frequently making some detached rock or 

 reef, contiguous to the busy shore, a permanent 

 abode, where it seems to enjoy its approximate union 

 with civilization." Not far from the city of San 

 Francisco, on an island called the "Seal Rocks," a 

 colony of these animals, wisely protected by the au- 

 thorities, exists. There in happy security they dis- 

 port themselves (watched by the inhabitants, who 

 frequent an hotel erected near the spot and called 

 "Ocean House"), sometimes basking in the sun, at 

 others sporting in the waters, into which they plunge 

 from rocks at least twenty feet high, with a mighty 

 splash amid showers of spray, their gambols en- 

 livened by a running accompaniment of incessant 

 barking. At their " rookeries " or breeding-places, 

 the polygamous males are not so fiercely jealous as 

 the fur seals, but, unlike the latter, there appears to 

 be very little attachment between the parent and its 

 offspring, and still less between the lord and his 

 numerous wives. Their food consists of fish, mol- 

 lusks, and sea-birds, and in the capture of the latter 

 great ingenuity is displayed. During the time they 

 frequent the "rookeries," however astonishing it may 

 appear, little or no food is taken by the males, and 

 not much more by the females. The mode adopted 

 for their capture is similar to that pursued in the case 

 of the fur seal as already described. After the 

 breeding season they disperse in all directions ; and in 

 proof of the migratory habits of this species it is re- 

 corded, on the authority of Professor Davidson, of the 

 U.S. Coast survey, that a large male sea-lion, killed 

 in June, 1870, on the coast of California, at Point 

 Arenas, in lat. 30°, bore in its body a spear-head 

 such as is used by the natives of Alaska. On the 

 coasts of Siberia and Kamschatka, the sea-lions as- 

 cend the rivers to feed upon the salmon, and are 

 taken by the natives in stake nets or captured upon 

 the ice in spring. In the southern regions Scammon 

 says sea-lions escape capture by the feeble Fuegians, 

 but the Patagonians kill them for their skins, which are 

 also inflated by the natives of Chili and Peru and used 

 as boats. In conclusion he remarks that in the far north 

 and south, where they are Irunted by the natives solely 

 for domestic consumption, they do not materially di- 

 minish in number, but that on the shores of California 

 " they will soon be exterminated by the deadly shot of 

 the rifle, or driven away to less accessible haunts." 



The larger Southern sea-lion, Olaria jiibata, now 

 living in the Zoological Society's Gardens, was 

 brought from the Falkland Islands, where it was 

 captured in 1867 ; the smaller one, O. piisilla, is from 

 the Cape of Good Hope, where it was taken in 1871. 



