140 ' ALA8KA INDUSTRIES. 



fur seals are, for it is so shy and suspicious that, on the slightest 

 warning of an approach, a stampede into the water is a certain result.' 



Peculiar cowardice op the sea lion. — That noteworthy, intel- 

 ligent courage of the fur seal, though it does not possess half the size 

 nor one-quarter of the muscular strength of the sea lion, is entirely 

 wanting in the huge bulk and brain of the Einnetopids. A boy with 

 a rattle or a popgun could stampede 10,000 sea-lion bulls, in the height 

 of the breeding season, to the water; and keep theui there for the 

 rest of the season.^ 



First arrivals. — The nia-les come out and locate over the narrow 

 belts of the rookery grounds (sometimes, as at St. Paul, on the imme- 

 diate sea margin of the fur-seal breeding places), two or three weeks 

 in advance of the females, which arrive- later, i. e., between the 1st 

 to the 61h of June; and these females are never* subjected to that 

 intense, jealous supervision so characteristic of the fur-seal harem. 

 The sea-lion bulls, however, light savagely among themselves, and 

 turn off from the breeding gi'ound all the younger and weaker males. 



The female sea lion. — The cow sea lion is not quite half the size 

 of the adult male; she will measure from 8 to 9 feet in length osteo- 

 logically, with a weight of 400 or 500 pounds; she has the same gen- 

 eral cast of countenance and build of the bull; but, as she does not 

 sustain any fasting period of over a week or ten daj^s consecutivelj', 

 she never comes out so grossly fat as the male. With reference to 

 the weight of the latter, I was i^articularl}^ 'unfortunate in not being 

 able to get one of those big bulls to the scales before it had been bled; 

 and in bleeding I know that a flood of blood jDOured out which should 

 have been recorded in the weight. Therefore, I can only estimate 

 this aggregate avoirdupois of one of the finest-conditioned adult male 



' That the sea-lion bull shonlfl be so cowardly in the presence of man. yet so 

 ferocious and brave toward one another and other amphibious-animals, struck me 

 as a line of singular contrast with the undaunted bearing of the fur-seal "sea- 

 catch," wliicli, though Ijeing not half the size or possessing muscular power to 

 anything like its development in the "seevitchie," nevertheless will unflinchingly 

 face on its station at tho rookery any man to the death. The sea-lion Ijulis cer- 

 tainly fight as savagely and as desperately one with another as the fur-seal males 

 do. There is no question aboul that, and their superior strength and size only 

 makes the result more effective in the exhibition of gaping wounds and attend- 

 ant bloodshed. I have repeatedly seen examples of these old warriors of the sea 

 which were literally scarred from their muzzles to their posteriors so badly and 

 so uniformly as to have fairly lost all the color or general appearance even of hair 

 anywhere on their bodies. 1 recall in this connection the sight of an aged male 

 sea lion which had evidently been defeated by a younger and more lusty rival per- 

 haps. It was hauled upon a lava shelf at Southwest Point, solitary and alone, the 

 rock aroiind it being literally covered with jiools of pus, which was oozing out 

 and trickling down from a score of festering wounds. The victim stood planted 

 sfpTarely on its torn fore flippers, with head erect and thrown back upon its shoul- 

 ders. Its eyes were closed, and it gently swayed its sore neck and shoulders in a 

 sort of troubled, painful day-dreaming or dozing. Like the fur seal, the sea lion 

 never notices its wounds to nurse and lick them, as dogs do, or other carnivora. 

 It never pays the slightest attention to them, no matter how grievously it may be 

 injured. 



' This marked cowardice of the sea lion was well noted by Steller, who speaks of 

 it thus: "Though the males have a terrible aspect, yet they take flight on the first 

 appearance of man, and if surprised in their sleep "they are panic struck, sighing 

 deeply, and in their attempt to escape get quite confused, tumbledown, and trem- 

 ble so much that they are scarcely able to move their limbs. If, however, reduced 

 to extremity they grow desporate. turn on their enemy with great fury and noise, 

 and put even the most valiant to flight. " (Nov. Com. Acad. Sci. PetroiJol. , tome ii, 

 1749.) 



