126 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 
fisher knocks him on the head, draws, without ceremony, his 
skin over his ears, and throws his blubber into the oil-kettle, 
The Otarias, or seals furnished with an external ear, and whose 
longer and more developed feet allow them to move more freely 
on land, rank in point of organisation at the head of the whole 
tribe. The most important and valuable of all is the Sea-Bear 
(Arctocephalus wrsinus), of which there are probably two 
species; the one inhabiting the Antarctic seas, while the other 
roams about the coasts and islands of the Northern Pacific, and 
selects St. Paul, one of the Pribilow group in Behring’s Sea, as 
its favourite summer haunt. ‘The fine-haired, black, curly 
skin of the younger animals, of from four months to one year 
old, is particularly esteemed, so as to be classed among the finer 
furs which find a ready sale in the Chinese market, and serve 
to decorate the persons of the higher rank of mandarins. The 
chase, which on the latter island was formerly a promiscuous 
massacre, is now reduced to the slaughter of a limited number 
of victims. It begins in the latter part of September, on a cold 
foggy day when the wind blows from the side where the animals 
are assembled on the rocky shore. The boldest huntsmen, ac- 
customed to clamber over stones and cliffs, open the way ; then 
follow their less experienced comrades, and the chief personage 
of the band comes last, to be the better able to direct and survey 
the movements of his men, who are all armed with clubs. The 
main object is to cut off the herd as quickly as possible from 
the sea. All the grown-up males and females are spared, but 
the younger animals are all driven landwards, sometimes to the 
distance of a couple of miles, and then partly clubbed to death. 
Those which are only four months old are doomed without ex- 
ception; while of the others only a certain number of the 
males are killed, and the females allowed to return again to the 
coast, when they soon betake themselves to the water. For 
several days after the massacre, the bereaved mothers swim 
about the island, seeking and loudly wailing for their young. 
From the 5th of October, St. Paul is gradually deserted by the 
sea bears, who then migrate to the south, and reappear towards 
the end of April,—the males arriving first. Each seeks the 
same spot on the shore which he occupied during the preceding 
year, and lies down among the large stone blocks with which the 
flat beach is covered. About the middle of May the far more 
