MARINK ANIMALS OF NORTHWEST (OAST. (>87 



in the wild state, and the danger appears to be wholly imaginary, as 



the sea lions have existed as long as the fish, and. until man with his 

 disregard of the future and his desperate endeavors to get rich rap- 

 idly, entered the field prepared to capture and kill wholesale for 

 immediate profit and the subsistence of nations beyond the sea, there 

 was fish enough and to spare. However, the sea lions are in no imme- 

 diate danger, and a better knowledge of their food and habits will 

 probably remove what seems to threaten in the future. 



The great sea lion of Steller has been less fortunate and his fate has 

 been curiously bound up with the sea-otter fishery, now in such a state 

 of decay as to be almost negligible. The sea lion, in the absence of 

 the larger hair seals, has been the chief reliance of the Aleutian otter 

 hunters for the hide, with which they cover their hunting kyaks. This 

 hide is far inferior to that of the seal, and must be renewed every 

 year. Without sea-lion skins the hunters could not go to sea on their 

 perilous hunting trips among the reefs for the precious otter fur. 

 Control of the supply of sea-lion hides means more or less control of 

 the hunting. So competing traders attacked the sea-lion rookeries, 

 partly to get hides to trade to the hunters or supply their own fleet of 

 kyaks; partly to destiw those they did not need, so that competitors 

 for trade should not be able to get sea-lion skins, and thus should have 

 their business crippled. 



The shy and elusive otter in the strenuous competition was soon so 

 generally killed off that the trade has diminished to a point where it 

 is dying for want of skins. The natives, diminishing at an astonish- 

 ing rate from measles, influenza, and other introduced diseases, are 

 obliged to earn a living otherwise than by hunting. So the devastated 

 sea lion rookeries are slowly recovering, and as their value and num- 

 ber are too small to tempt destruction on commercial grounds by the 

 whites, we limy regard the danger point as passed. The burly mon- 

 arch of the island reefs is no longer in need of immediate protection. 



The strong arm of Russia, guided by expert know ledge, has pro- 

 vided and efficiently protected a reserve on the Commander Islands, 

 where the sea otter is now flourishing and a valuable industry slowly 

 reviving. When a single good skin is worth &400 at any furrier's, 

 the whole power of the United States, as at present exerted in such 

 matters (witness the buffalo in the Yellowstone Park), is incompetent 

 to protect or preserve an animal or an industry against the poacher 

 on her own soil. Spain may recoil in defeat, but the poacher boldly 

 scorns the guardians of a reservation and jingles the dollars in his 

 pocket. We may therefore give up the case of the sea otter as hope- 

 less. Democracy has its disadvantages. 



There remains the case of the walrus. There were, a few years ago, 

 several small herds of this animal existing at little-frequented points 

 in Bering Sea. This animal seems to be able to change its habits. At 



