rill-: >■/•;. I i.i<>\s or iWui-onsiA 



•iM 



iiur.-f lull ill t'\t'rv in>v \v;i> illt nalrd. 

 iiiul ill the iiiJiiiy times I saw it tiv. 1 

 (1(» not liclii'vc it ever succt'cdrd in ^fd- 

 liiii: tlic U'Hst nourislinicnt. 'riicn- wcrr 

 always soino starving; |'"I'^ "'" ''"' i""'^- 

 (TV. One (lay one of tlirsc |)crsi>l(il in 

 sucking' till' car of a very fat ami 



sleepy lieijrllhor J)ll|». The >Iee|)y fUle 

 would sliaki' tile other oil" and ltpowI. 

 Iiiit it was so slee|>y thai it eimld not 

 keejt its eyes open, and the ininute it 

 would dro|) oir the other would i:o at it 

 airain. It would hi' interest iiiLT to know 

 whether a cow that had lost her pup 

 wmild adojit one of these or|)han>. 



Several years ajro 1 hel]ied to exani- 

 iiK^ the stomachs of forty sea lions that 

 were shot for this purpose. The sea 

 lion has always heeii a l)one of conten- 

 tion hetweeii peo])le who are interesteil 

 in preservin<; them and fishermen, wlm 

 claim that the animals arc depletiiif.^ 

 th(^ fisheries. Fifteen of the forty were 

 Steller's sea lions, all cows hut one 

 yoiiii': male. Ei»,dit of the.se had fish 

 remains in the stomach, ami three of 

 the ei^rht had iSfpiid in addition. The 

 stomachs of the remaininir seven were 

 empty. In other words, those that had 

 anything; in the stomach at all had fish. 

 One of them had nearly thirty ])ou]ids 

 of rock cod; one was full of sardines; 

 on.e had salmon hones. 



Twenty-five of the forty were Cali- 

 fornia sea lions, ei«rhteen cows, five 

 young males, and two hreedin<; hulls. 

 Five of these had squid and fish re- 

 mains in the stomach ; eight had squid 

 only; and twelve were empty, two of 

 which were l)reedin<r l)ulls. Among the 

 stomachs that had food remains, two 

 had about two hundred .squid pens each, 

 and one had three hundred. The squid 

 ]»en is a liorny rod, shaped like a lance 

 lu-ad. that is found along the hack of 

 the .s(|uid. The .s(jiiid has a heak much 

 like that of a parrot. In the sea lions" 

 stomachs were a few beaks, but many 

 f-i\\\M\ j)ens. Sometimes many ]»ens 



\MMild he picMiit and no h(>aks at all. 

 The only way \w ctiuld explain this 

 wa> that the. sea lion had bitten the 

 .■«(piid oil" behind the head. The beaks 

 are of the same sulotaiice a> tln' pens, 

 but iiiiich harder in com|»osit ion ; so it 

 is scarcely jiossible that they could have 

 been dissohed by the gastric juices 

 without the pens also dis>olving. 



.\iiotlii'i- thing easier to explain was 

 the finding of the "ear bones'" <d" lishes 

 when other bones had disappeare<l. In 

 this ca>e the digotive juices had ili>- 

 SoIvimI the other bones, but the ear 

 JMUies. being of harder substance, had 

 reinaiiied to the last. 



Terhaps the mo>t astiini>hiiig things 

 to llnd in the stomachs were stones. 

 These Were stunetimes in stomachs 

 oiherwise enijity; sometinu's with much 

 or little food. One stomach had a stone 

 in it as largi' as a ba,<e ball ; one had 

 three stones of good size: one had fif- 

 teen stones etpial to a couple of (piarts 

 in bulk; two had four stones of good 

 size in ea<li ; one hail thirty-one small 

 stones. All of these but the first were 

 of the ralifornia sea lion. The econ- 

 omy of this habit never has been ex- 

 |)laine(l. Fishermen, looking at it 

 from their stand])oint. call the stones 

 ballast. 



I do not intend to enter into a dis- 

 cussion of the damage sea lions do to 

 the fisheries. It is certain that some 

 animals do a considerable amount of 

 damage to fishing nets and to netted 

 fish. Sojue fishermen claim that shark.s 

 do more damage than sea lions, others 

 that seals do the most, and still others 

 that all three of the.se animals — sharks, 

 sea lions, and seals — are equally to 

 blame. 



Just why these great animals with 

 such interesting haliits have been 

 studied and written of so little is diffi- 

 cult to understand, and one reason for 

 my writing this article is the hope that 

 1 niav inlluence someone to studv them. 



