86 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Organization of sea-lion rookeries. — The sea-lion rookery will be found to consist of about ten to 

 fifteen females to every male. The females, in landing, seem to be influenced by no preference for one male above 

 another, but are actuated solely to come ashore at a suitable place, where, soon after landing, they are to bring 

 forth their young. The cow seems at all times to have the utmost freedom in moving from place to place ; and also 

 often to start with its young — which i.s noteworthy, inasmuch as I never saw it among the fur-seals — picking the pup 

 up by the nape and carrying it to the water to play with it for short spells in tbe surf wash. The pup sea-lions are 

 by no means helpless when they are born; when they first come into tbe world their eyes are promptly opened wide 

 and clear; they stand up quite free and strong on their odd flipper feet, and commence at once, in their frequent 

 intervals of wakefulness, to crawl over bowlders and the sand, to paddle iu the surf, and to roar huskily and shrilly 

 at their parents. 



Growth of young sea-lions. — They are fed upon the richest of rich milk, at irregular and somewhat 

 lengthy periods; regaled in this manner, the young sea-lion grows with surprising rapidity, so much so that its 

 weight, of 9 or 12 pounds at birth, is increased to 75 or 90, in less than four months thereafter. By this time, also, it 

 has shed its natal coat and teeth ; it has grown a strong mustache, and has become a facile swimmer and expert 

 fisherman, though at first it was one of the most clumsy, yet never so helpless as the fur-seal. The liquid, pearly- 

 blue eye of the little fellow is soon changed into the sinister expression of adolescence, when it has rounded its 

 second year. It appears to grow up unnoticed by its grim-looking parents, though the maternal attention is more 

 evident, but still scant, indeed, when contrasted with the love evinced by cat or dog for its offspring. 



Visiting the Tolstoi rookery. — At the east end of St. George island, just to the southward of Tolstoi 

 Mees, is one of the finest sea-lion rookeries on the islands, or, perhaps, in the world. It lies at the base of a frowning 

 wall of precipitous cliffs, the mural walls sheer aloft 400 and 500 feet as they overhang the sea. Here beneath, on 

 a rocky stretch of beach some 30 or 40 feet wide, at high-water mark, stowed thickly side by side, end to end, and 

 crosswise for a distance of half a mile up and down the coast, are four or five thousand sea-lions of all sizes and 

 both sexes; and here they will be found every summer, secure from the approach of enemies by laud. Inasmuch 

 as they rest there under the cliffs, they cannot 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, the observer can descend at intervals from the heights above, 

 unheeded and unsuspected by them, to within a stone's throw of their tawny forms; where you may uotice their 

 thousand and one unconstrained and peculiar maneuvers, which would be interrupted at once by a tumultuous and 

 universal 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 aud uncoiling themselves over the rocks; now stretched out 

 prone iu slumber, the next minute up and moving. The roar of one is instantly caught up by auother, so that the 

 aggregate sound, as it rises and falls from this rookery, reverberating along the blufl's at irregular though close 

 intervals, can only be compared, in my mind, to the hoarse sound of a tempest as it howls through the rigging 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 aud the young. It does not have 

 that striking flexibility of the Callorhinus, and in this respect their vocal organization is very marked and different 

 from that of the fur-seal. I might say, further, that the pups are exceedingly playful, but, unlike the noisy 

 " kotickie ", they are almost silent ; when they utter a sound it is a short, sharp, querulous growling. 



it, early in May. Some of these super-fleshy fur-seal males look as though they were from 600 to 700 pounds weight, while I have seen 

 several sea-lion hulls that actually appeared equal to turning the scales at 1,500 pounds avoirdupois. Those fur-seals which I did weigh in 

 July, 1873, aud September, 1872, were not at all extra fleshy, and consequently do not give a fair return for these examples abo\ <■ referred to. 



*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 iu, along the water's edge at intervals, so closely with the fur-seals, and in such apparent 

 good fellowship, that I could not observe any sharp demaxkation between them; except only the irregular, confused patches of their 

 bright golden coats in contrast with the dull rusty dress of Callorhinus. The Eumetopias, here, where it was breeding, never lay far back 

 from the surf, but 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 rookery spots on the Pribylov islands where they breed in close 

 juxtaposition with the fur-seals. Then, there is a sea-lion rookery on St. George, all to itself, under the high mural walls just north of 

 the Garden cove sand beech, where I estimate another 4,000 to 5,000 of these animals annually haul out and breed. Very likely my 

 allowance of 1-2,000 to 15,000 sea-lions on St. Paul is too large, and 1(1,000 is a better figure of their numerical expression. My published 

 estimates of 25,000 on the two islands, iu 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 narrow littoral margins of the sea-lions' breeding-grounds; but meekly 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. 1 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 100 pounds of iish per diem, while the 

 females and younger males would crave and consume from 40 to 00 pounds of such food every twenty-four hours. 



