128 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 
and shun their haunts. They again are in equal fear of the 
Leonine seals, and do not care to begin a quarrel in their 
presence, dreading the intervention of such formidable arbi- 
trators, who likewise possess the first place on the shore. 
Steller’s Sea-Lion, (Otaria Stelleri,) is about as large again as 
the sea-bear, but its tawny hide, covered with short bristles, is 
without value in the fur trade. To the Aleut, however, the 
animal is of great use, for he covers his boat, with its skin, 
makes his water-tight /amleika with its intestines, the soles of 
his shoes with the webs of its feet, ornaments his cap with its 
long beard hair, and feasts upon its flesh. On all the coasts and 
islands of the Pacific this sea-lion is found, from 61° N. lat. 
to unknown southern limits, but nowhere in such numbers as 
on the Pribilow Island, St. George, where its countless herds 
afford a wonderful spectacle. The shapeless gigantic fat and 
flesh-masses, awkward and unwieldy on land, cover, as far as 
tne eye can reach, a broad, rocky, naked strand-belt, blackened 
with oil. The sea-birds occupy the empty places between 
the herds of the sea-lions, and fly fearlessly before the gaping 
jaws of the huge monsters, without caring about their hideous 
bellowing. In countless numbers they build their nests in the 
caves of the surf-beaten cliffs, and among the large boulders on 
the shore, whose tops are whitened with their dung. A thick fog 
generally spreads over the desolate scene, and the hollow roar- 
ing of the breakers unites, with the screaming of the birds and 
the bellowing of the sea lions, to form a wild and melancholy 
concert. 
Steller’s sea-lion is furnished only with an erect and curly 
hair-tuft at his neck, while a complete mane flows round the 
breast of the sea-lion of the southern hemisphere, (Otaria jubata). 
The remainder of the body is covered with short smooth hairs, 
or bristles. The sea-lioness has no mane, and is darker than the 
male. The fore-fins have the appearance of large pieces of black 
tough leather, showing, instead of nails, slight horny elevations ; 
the hind-fins, which are likewise black, have a closer resemblance 
to feet, and the five toes are furnished with small nails. A for- 
midable-looking beast, eleven feet long! and well may the 
vaturalist start, when, walking through the high tussack grass 
of the Falkland Islands, he suddenly stumbles over a huge sea-~ 
lion, stretched along the ground, and blocking up his path. 
