142 ALASKA INDUSTRIES, 



lions of all sizes and both sexes, and here they will be found every 

 sutnnier, secni-e from the approach of enemies l)y land. Inasmuch as 

 they rest there under the cliffs, they can not be practically approached 

 and driven, as their kind are by the Aleuts from their more accessible 

 breeding haunts at Northeast Point, St. Paul Island.^ 



By paying attention to the direction of the wind tlie observer can 

 descend at intervals from the heights above, unheeded and unsus- 

 pected by them, to within a stone's throw of their tawny forms, where 

 you may notice their thousand and one unconstrained and peculiar 

 maneuvers, which Avould be interruj^ted at once by a tumultous and 

 nniversal rush for the water should you make yourself known. You 

 will be impressed first by their excessive restlessness. They are ever 

 twisting and turning, coiling and uncoiling themselves over the rocks, 

 now stretched out prone in slumber, the next m inute up and moving. 

 The roar of one is instantly caught up by another, so that the aggre- 

 gate sound as it rises and falls from this rookery, reverberating along 

 the bluffs at irregular though close intervals, can onlj^ be comi^ared in 

 my mind to the hoarse sovmd of a tempest as it howls through the rig- 

 ging of a ship or sighs through the branches of a forest growth. 



The voice of the northern sea lion, Eumetopias, is confined to either 

 a deep, resonant roar or a low, muttering growl. Not only to the 

 males alone is this monotone peculiar, but also to the females and the 

 young. It does not have that striking flexibility of the Callorliiruis, 

 and in this respect their vocal organization is very marked and differ- 

 ent from that of the fur seal. I might say further that the pups are 

 exceedingly f)layful, but, unlike the noisy "kotickie," they are almost 

 silent. When they utter a sound it is a short, sharp, querulous 

 growling. 



The young promptly deserted. — You will notice that if you dis- 



'It will be noticed that I have made no especial spacing or reservation on my 

 maps for the sea lions at Northeast Point, on St. Paul Island, but have included 

 them solidly within the lines of the breeding fur seals. The reason why I omit 

 these lines of exact limitation is due to the fact that they laid in along the water's 

 edge at intervals so closely with the fur seals and in such apparent good fellow- 

 ship that I could not observe any sharp demarcation between them, except only 

 the irregular, confused patches of their bright golden coats in contrast with the 

 dull, rustj' dress of CaUorhinuis. The Eimictopias here, where it was breeding, 

 never lay far back from the surf, biit always close to its high- water washings. In 

 this method, I should judge^ about 12,000 to 15,000 of them occupy little strips of 

 Novastoshnah and Seevitchie Kammin, being the only rookerj' spots on the Pribi- 

 lof Islands where they breed in close juxtaposition with the fur seals. Then 

 there is a sea-lion rookery on St. George, all to itself, iinder the high mural walls 

 just north of the Garden Cove sand beach, where I estimate another 4,000 or 5.000 

 of these animals annually haul out and breed. Very likely my allowance of 13,000 

 to 15,000 sea lions on St. Paul is too large, and 10,000 is a better figure of their 

 numerical expression. My published estimates of 35,000 on the two islands in 

 1874 I feel now are larger than the facts allow. 



As might be inferred, the sea lions at Novastoshnah do not allow the fur seals 

 to disturb them, nor do they in turn ever appear to annoy or drive their physically 

 weaker brethren. They seem to wear an air of perfect unconcern for each other, 

 although the fur-seal bulls, I observed, were never caught lounging over the nar- 

 row littoral margins of the sea lion"s breeding ground, but meekl}^ bowed their 

 heads and scuttled across, wholly beneath the notice of the huge ""seevitchie." 



Why the sea lion should be relatively so scant in numbers over the great extent 

 of the large geographical area wherein it is found is perplexing to me, for it is 

 physically as active and much more powerful than the fur seal. Perhaps this 

 increased bulk of body deters it from feeding as successfully as its more lithesome 

 cousin does. I should estimate that the full-grown sea-lion bull, after it leaves the 

 islands at the end of the breeding season until it reappears for the next, would require 

 at least 101) pounds of fish jier diem, while the females and younger males would 

 crave and consume from 40 to 60 pounds of such food every twenty -four hours. 



