CHAPTER XXXI 



TAMENESS OF ANIMALS AMONG THE CHANNEL ISLANDS 



THE feature which will really amaze the wan- 

 derer among the Channel Islands is the 

 tameness of some animals. To meet a bull 

 sea-lion weighing approximately half a ton, on the main 

 avenue of a town, fifty feet from the water, is a pos- 

 sibility of a startling nature, yet I have seen Old Ben, 

 the head of the Santa Catalina sea-lion rookery, on 

 Crescent Avenue, Avalon, surrounded by tourists who 

 snapped their cameras at him with impunity. At that 

 time Ben could be induced to come ashore when the 

 lure was a fat, long-finned tuna; but one day he climbed 

 upon the wharf, coming entirely up the steps, follow- 

 ing the man with a fish. Then some unreasonable 

 person made a threatening demonstration; Ben started 

 for the steps, lost his hold, slipped, and fell, smashing 

 them and wounding himself. For a long time he 

 remembered this, but gradually his faith in human 

 beings has returned and the men can call him up on 

 the boat-landing of the float or out upon the beach, 

 by showing a succulent fish. 



When very hungry he has permitted himself to be 

 touched or patted by one of the fishermen. He is 

 good-tempered and never attempts to bite. But he 

 is a savage-looking animal, and when he comes leaping 

 up on the boat landing, driving off women and chil- 

 dren by mere ferocity of appearance, and seizing their 



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