SEA-LIONS AND FUR-SEALS. 335 



The pups begin to take to the water when they are about a month 

 old, clumsily at first, but soon becoming accustomed to the ele- 

 ment. The rookery at the Pribylov Islands is broken up during 

 the last days of July and the first week in August, The young 

 have then become able to take care of themselves, and are aban- 

 doned by their mothers, who give themselves up to lounging in 

 the waves. The "married seals," who have been constantly at 

 their posts and restlessly active for three months without taking 

 food or water, go down to the sea to feed and wash. Notwith- 

 standing their long fast and hard work, they are not emaciated, 

 but come out in good condition, having sustained life all the time 

 by absorption of the thick stores of fat hidden under their skins. 

 The mothers continue to idle, and the pups and " bachelors " to 

 sport and frolic, till the storms of autumn begin to come on, 

 when they all depart for warmer latitudes, after which they give 

 no account of themselves till the next spring. 



Dr. Gray, of the British Museum, made out nine genera and sev- 

 enteen species of eared seals. He based his distinctions too often on 

 insignificant differences, and erred to excess. Mr. Clark recognizes 

 but nine species, and includes them all in the single genus Otaria. 

 While the true seals confine themselves to cool latitudes, the Otarise 

 bear warmth and appear to be sensitive to changes of temperature, 

 avoiding extreme cold. In the Atlantic Ocean they are found 

 only in the extreme southern part, beginning at the mouth of the 

 Rio de la Plata, and extend- 

 ing ihenpe all around the 

 coasts of South America. 

 They are common on the 

 coast of California, along 

 the Aleutian Islands to the 

 coast of Japan, and in the 

 Pribylov Islands, in Bering 

 Sea, their best-known resort. 

 They are found around the 

 coast of New Zealand, the 

 Auckland Islands, Tasma- 

 nia, and the south and east 

 coasts of Australia, at Ker- 

 guelen's Land and the Cro- 

 zets, and near the Cape of p^^ 4._the northern sea-bear (otaHa unma). 

 Good Hope. Most of the 



skins found in the market are credited to the Falkland Islands, 

 the Cape of Good Hope, and the Pribylov Islands. 



The best-known species is the northern sea-bear ( Otaria ursina, 

 Fig. 4), which inhabits the Pribylov Islands. It frequents those 

 islands in enormous numbers, their whole seal population being 



