THE LARGER NORTH AMERICAN MAMMALS 



429 



the intruders, bellowing and rushing about, 

 rearing their huge heads and gleaming white 

 tusks high out of water in an alarming manner. 

 As a rule, however, they are timid and seek 

 only to escape, although occasionally, in their 

 excitement, one has been known to attack a 

 boat and by a single blow of its tusks to do 

 serious damage and endanger the crew. 



ALASKA FUR SEAL (Callorhinus 

 alascanus) 



Several species of fur seals are known, all 

 of them limited to the southern oceans or the 

 coasts and islands of the North Pacific. All 

 are strongly gregarious and formerly sought 

 their island breeding grounds in vast numbers. 

 At one period, soon after the purchase of 

 Alaska, it was estimated that several million 

 fur seals were on the Pribilof Islands in one 

 season. During the height of their abundance 

 the southern fur seals were equally numerous. 



The value of their skins and the facility with 

 which these animals may be slaughtered have re- 

 sulted in the practical extermination of all but 

 those which breed under governmental protec- 

 tion on the Russian islands off the coast of 

 Kamchatka and on the Pribilof Islands in 

 Alaska. Owing mainly to wasteful pelagic 

 sealing prior to the recent international treaty, 

 the numbers on both these groups of islands 

 were much reduced. 



The Alaska fur seal is a migratory species, 

 wintering down the Pacific coast as far as 

 northern California. The migrations of these 

 seals are of remarkable interest. In spring 

 they leave the northwest coast and many of 

 them travel steadily across more than two 

 thousand miles of the North Pacific. For days 

 at a time they swim through a roaring gale- 

 swept sea, under dense, low-hanging clouds, 

 and with unerring certainty strike certain pas- 

 sages in the Aleutian Islands, through which 

 they press to their breeding grounds, more than 

 100 miles beyond, on the small, fog-hidden 

 Pribilof Islands. 



Fur seals are extremely polygamous and the 

 old males, which weigh from 400 to 500 pounds, 

 "haul up" first on the breeding beaches. Each 

 bull holds a certain area, and as the females, 

 only one-fifth his size, come ashore they are 

 appropriated by the nearest bulls until each 

 "beach master" gathers a harem, sometimes 

 containing more than 100 members. 



Here the young are born, and after the mat- 

 ing season the seals, which have remained 

 ashore without food from four to six weeks, 

 return to the water. The mothers go and 

 come, and each is able to find her young with 

 certainty among thousands of apparently iden- 

 tical woolly black "pups." 



From the ages of one to four years fur seals 

 are extremely playful. They are marvelous 

 swimmers and frolic about in pursuit of one 

 another, now diving deep and then, one after 

 the other, suddenly leaping high above the sur- 

 face in graceful curves, like porpoises. Squids 

 and fish of various species are their main food. 

 Their chief natural enemy is the killer whale, 



which follows their migrations and haunts the 

 sea about their breeding grounds, taking heavy 

 toll among them. 



Since the discovery of the Pribilof Islands 

 by the Russians the fur seal herds there have 

 yielded more than five million recorded skins. 

 A census of the herds in I9i4gave these islands 

 nearly three hundred thousand seals. Now that 

 pelagic sealing has been suppressed and the 

 herds are being protected, there is every reason 

 to expect that the seals will increase rapidly to 

 something like their former numbers. 



STELLER SEA-LION (Eumetopias 

 jubata) 



Sea-lions are near relatives of the fur seals 

 and have a nearly similar distribution, both in 

 far southern and northern seas. The males of 

 the several species are more than twice the 

 size of the females and are characterized by 

 an enormous development of neck and shoul- 

 ders. The Steller sea-lion is the largest mem- 

 ber of the group, the old bulls weighing from 

 1,200 to 1,500 pounds. All are extremely gre- 

 garious and polygamous. 



The Steller sea-lions belong to the North 

 Pacific, whence they range in winter as far 

 south as the coasts of California and Japan. 

 In spring they migrate northward to their 

 breeding grounds among the Aleutian, Pribilof, 

 and other rocky islands of the North Pacific. 

 The early histories of this region record their 

 great abundance, including several hundred 

 thousand which were reported to have congre- 

 gated to breed each season on the Pribilof 

 Islands. Although less valuable than the fur- 

 seal, persistent hunting has gradually reduced 

 their numbers on these islands until in 1914 

 only a few hundred remained. 



In summer range they are less limited than 

 the fur seals, occurring in herds about ihe 

 shores of many rocky islands along the main- 

 land coast of the North Pacific and the Aleu- 

 tian chain. 



Since the primitive days before the arrival 

 of civilized men in their haunts, sea-lions were 

 of the greatest economic importance to the 

 Aleutian Islanders and other coast natives. 

 Food and fuel were obtained from their flesh 

 and blubber; coverings for boats were made of 

 their skins; water-proof overshirts of their in- 

 testines ; boot soles from the tanned skin of 

 their flippers; trimmings of fancy garments 

 from their tanned gullets and bristles, and 

 thread from their sinews. 



They are preeminently animals of the most 

 rugged of shorelines and the stormiest of seas, 

 being superbly powerful beasts with extraordi- 

 nary vitality. The ease with which they pass 

 tln-ough a smother of pounding seas to mount 

 their rugged resting places is an admirable ex- 

 hibition of skill and strength. The males have 

 a bellowing roar, which rises continually from 

 the herds on the rocks in savage uni.son with 

 the booming of the sea against the base of 

 their refuge. 



The harems of tlie bulls on Pribilof Islands 

 rarclv exceed a dozen members, which are 



