92 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



together into that most characteristic water-proof garment of the world, known as the "kamlaika";* which, while 

 being fully as water-proof as India rubber, has far greater strength, and is never affected by grease and oil. It is 

 also transparent in its fitting over dark clothes. The sea-lions' throats are served in a similar manner, and, when 

 cured, are made into boot tops, which are in turn soled by the tough skin that composes the palms of this animal's 

 fore flippers. 



Stomach-walls used as oil-pouches. — Around the natives' houses, on St. Paul and St. George, constantly 

 appear curious objects which, to the unaccustomed eye, resemble overgrown gourds or enormous calabashes with 

 attenuated necks; an examination proves them to be the dried, distended stomach-walls of the sea-lion, filled with 

 its oil; which, unlike the offensive blubber of the fur-seal, boils out clear and inodorous from its fat. The tlesh of 

 an old sea-lion, while not very palatable, is tasteless and dry; but the meat of a yearling is very much like veal, and 

 when properly cooked I think it is just as good ; but the superiority of the -sea-lion meat over that of the fur-seal 

 is decidedly marked. It requires some skill, in the cuisine, ere sausage and steaks of the Callorhinus are accepted 

 on the table ; while it does not, however, require much art, experience, or patience for the cook to serve up the juicy 

 ribs of a young sea-lion so that the most fastidious palate will fail to relish it. 



Caking for the flesh. — The carcass of the sea-lion, after it is stripped of its hide, and disemboweled, is hung 

 up in cool weather by its hiud-flippers, over a rude wooden frame or " labaas ", as the natives call it, where, together 

 with many more bodies of fur-seals treated in the same manner, it serves from November until the followiug season 

 of May, as the meat-house of the Aleut on St. Paul and St. George. Exposed in this manner to the open weather, 

 the natives keep their seal-meat almost any length of time, in winter, for use ; and, like our old duck and bird hunters, 

 they say they prefer to have the meat tainted rather than fresh, declaring that it is most tender and toothsome 

 when decidedly "loud". 



Chinese demand for whiskers. — The tough, elastic moustache bristles of the sea-lion are objects of great 

 commercial activity by the Chinese, who prize them highly for pickers to their opiuni pipes, and several ceremouies 

 peculiar to their joss houses. These lip bristles of the fur-seal are usually too small and too elastic for this service. 

 The natives, however, always carefully pluck them out of the Eumetopias, and get their full value in exchange. 



Diet of the sea-lion. — The sea-lion also, as in the case of the fur-seal, is a fish-eater, pure and simple, though 

 he, like the latter, occasionally varies his diet by consuming a limited amount of juicy sea-weed fronds, and tender 

 marine crustaceans; but he hunts no animal whatever for food, nor does he ever molest, up here, the sea-fowl that 

 incessantly hovers over his head, or sits in flocks without fear on the surface of the waters around him. He, like 

 the Callorhinus, is, without question, a mighty fisherman, familiar with every submarine haunt of his piscatorial 

 prey; and, like his cousin, rejects the heads of all those fish which have hard horny mouths, or are filled with teeth 

 or bony plates. t - 



G. THE WALRUS OF BERING SEA (ODOB.ENUS OBESUS). 



18. LIFE-HISTOBY OF THE WALEUS. ' 



Voluminous writings relative to the walrus.— When I first set out for the seal-islands, from the 

 Smithsonian Institution, in 1872, I fancied that, as far as the walrus was concerned, I should have nothing to learn, 

 because of the literature on that subject which I had read, from the Congressional Library, viz : 



The curious histories written by Olaus Magnus, in 1555 ; by Gesner, in 1558; by Martens, in 1C75 ; by Pennant, 

 in 1781-1702; by Button, in 1785; and by Cuvier, in 1810; together with an almost innumerable list of authors who 

 have since contributed papers on the walrus and its character to nearly all the learned associations of the world. 



bristles were a venture of tin- boy, who gathers ;ill that he can, then sends them to San Francisco, where they find a ready sale to the Chinese, 

 who pay about oik dent apiece for them. When the natives cut up a sea-lion carcass, or one of a fur-seal, on the killing-grounds for meat, 

 they take only the hams and the loins. Later in the season they eat the entire carcass, which they hang up by the hind-flippers on a 

 "laabas" by their houses. 



*The Aleutian name, for this garment is unpronounceable in our language, and equally so in the more flexible Russian; hence the 

 Alaskan "kamlaika," derived from the Siberian "kamlaia." That is made of tanned reindeer skin, nnhaired, and smoked by larch 

 bark until it is colored a saffron yellow; and is worn over the reindeer skin undershirt, which has the hair next to the owner's skin, and 

 the obverse *i<lr stained red by a decoction of alder bark. The kamlaia is dosed behind and before, and a hood, fastened to the bail; of 

 the neck, is drawn over the head, when leaving shelter; so is the Aleutian kamlaika; only the one of Kolyma is used to keep out piercing 

 dry cold, while the garment of the Bering sea is a perfect water repellant. 



I Many authorities, who are quoted in regard to the habits of the hair-seals and southern sea-lions, speak with much fine detail 

 of having witnessed the capture of sea-fowl by Phocidm and Otariidce. To this point of inquiry on the Pribylov islands, I gave continued 

 close attention; because, oft' and around all of the rookeries large Hocks of auks, arries, gulls, shags, and choochkiee were swimming 

 upon the water, and shifting thereupon incessantly, day and night, throughout the late spring, summer, and early fall. During the four 

 seasons of my observation I never saw the slightest motion made by a fur-seal or sea-lion, a hair-seal, or a walrus toward intentionally 

 disturbing a single bird, much less of capturing and eating it. Had these seals any appetite for sea-fowl, this craving could have been 

 abundantly satisfied at the expense of absolutely no effort on their part. That none of these animals base any taste for water-birds I am 

 thoroughly assured. 



