686 MARINE ANIMALS OF NORTHWEST COAST. 



The sea elephant, former!}' ranging- from the vicinity of San Fran- 

 cisco, at Point Reyes, to the we-t shore of the peninsula of Lower 

 California, is believed to be, if not actually extinct, at least reduced 

 to a few individuals which are finding a temporary refuge among the 

 reefs of Lower California. No one knows of any living specimens 

 and the species, for present purposes, ma,Y be left out of consideration. 



The bearded seal is supposed to occur very rarely on the coast of 

 Eastern Siberia near Bering Strait. It is a common Atlantic species 

 and ma}' be merely a straggler in the Far West. The saddleback, a 

 remarkably handsome and very rare animal, is believed to be confined 

 to Kamchatka, the Okhotsk Sea, and the Kurile Islands. These two 

 may also be dismissed from our reckoning. 



The harbor seal is common in the colder waters of the coast, and 

 colonies occur where the glaciers of southeastern Alaska drop their 

 shattered ice blocks into bays and inlets. The mass of the species, 

 however, is more northern and frequents the region of Bering Strait 

 and the polar sea, especially about the edges of floe ice. It is a small 

 species and largely utilized by the natives of those coasts for many 

 purposes. 



The ringed seal, a somewhat larger and handsomer animal, exists 

 under nearly the same conditions and is hunted by the natives for the 

 same purposes. 



The harp seal, a much larger animal, is also of great importance to 

 the native population and occupies the same region, though it never 

 occurs in the vast numbers which make its pursuit by the Newfound- 

 land sealers of commercial importance in the Atlantic. 



These three are speared through the ice, at their blowholes in win- 

 ter, or caught in nets ingeniously spread under the ice by the aid of 

 long poles. They are shot or lanced near the edge of the floe in 

 spring, and supply food, oil for fuel, soles for foot wear, coverings 

 for boats, and a multitude of other articles essential to the existence 

 of the native population. The number killed, though large in the 

 total, is not so great as to disturl) the balance of nature; and with the 

 rapid decrease of the native population, due to introduced diseases, it 

 will be less and less, year by year. They do not exist at present in 

 numbers suflicient to tempt commercial slaughter, and so we may 

 regard these species at least as practically safe under existing con- 

 ditions. 



The lesser sea lion is a native of the coasts of California, where it 

 exists in large rookeries at a few places, especially on the Farallones 

 Islands — fortunately a Government light- house reservation. Here 

 they are not disturbed, though every few years a foolish agitation^ 

 arises among the fishermen of San Francisco calling for their destruc- 

 tion on the ground that they are destroying the salmon, or other fish. 

 No one has ever found a piece of salmon in the stomach of a sea lion 



