122 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



which art gives it. The outer fur is long and coarse, 

 and only the inner fur of the exquisite texture of the 

 " made " skin. The former is removed, and the latter 

 dyed to the rich brown colour which we see. The fur- 

 seals are steadily diminishing, and each year's catch is 

 smaller than that of the year before. 



The Cape Fur-seal, Southern Fur-seal, and 

 New Zealand Fur-seal are practically extinct for 

 commercial purposes. 



B) r permiilton of Profeslor Bumpus 



SEA-LION 



All sea-lions are polygamous. The males guard their 

 harems 1'cry jealously , an J fight determinedly 'with any 

 intruder 



The Hair-seals. 



Among these are the large so-called " sea-lions " 

 of Patagonia and the North Pacific. We are familiar 

 with their appearance, because for many years speci- 

 mens have been kept at the Zoological Gardens. 

 Their habits are much the same as those of the 

 fur-seals. The principal species are, in the north, 

 Steller's Sea-lion, and the Patagonian Sea-lion 

 in the south. Those kept at the Zoological Gardens 

 are usually of the latter species. 



Steller's Sea-lion is already on the road to 

 extinction. When the annual catch of fur-seals 

 reached 100,000 a year, the total number of these 

 northern sea-lions was estimated at between 30,000 

 and 40,000. They repair every year to the Pribyloff 

 Islands to breed, as the fur-seals do, but are shier and 

 more entirely aquatic. The fur of the old males is 

 tawny, and makes a kind of mane over the shoulders, 

 whence its name. Off San Francisco there is a small 

 rocky island, one of the ancient " rookeries " of these sea-lions, where they are carefully preserved 

 by the United States Government as one of the sights of the bay. Another favourite haunt in 

 old days was on the Farralone Islands, thirty miles from the bay. 



Southwards, towards the Antarctic, on the desolate and uninhabited coasts and islets of the 

 Far Southern Ocean, the most characteristic of the fauna still remaining are the sea-lions. For- 

 merly they swarmed in great packs, crowding at the breeding-season the seaweed-covered rocks 

 with their huge and unwieldy forms, and at other times cruising in uncouth and noisy companies 

 in search of the fishes and squids, which they pursued like packs of ocean-wolves. In spring the 

 sea-lions used to struggle on to the flat shore, where the equally aquatic tribes of penguins, which 

 had lost the use of their wings, covered acre after acre of rock with their eggs and young. 

 These the sea-lions devoured. When the men of the first exploring-ships visited the penguins' 

 nurseries, all the ungainly birds began to hop inland, evidently taking the men for seals, and 

 thinking it best to draw them as far from their native element as possible. But the eared seals 

 can make good progress of a kind on land. When Captain Musgrave and his crew were cast 

 away for twenty months on the Auckland Islands, they found their tracks on the top of a hill 

 four miles from the water. Captain Musgrave also saw the mother seals teaching their puppies 

 to swim ; they were by no means inclined to do this, and were afraid of the water — fairly clear 

 presumptive evidence that seals have only recently, so far as natural time is counted, taken to the 

 aquatic life, and modified their form so profoundly as they have. 



The Patagonian Sea-lion i- perhaps the most numerous species, though its numbers have 



