ALLEN : MAMMALIA : OTARIID/E. 99 



"The oil is chiefly used for softening wool, and for other purposes in 

 the manufacture of cloth, for which it is especially adapted. 



"The above relates only to the operations of Americans, and even for 

 these the published statistics are far from complete (given principally by A. 

 Howard Clark in Goode's 'Fishery Industries of the United States'). 

 When we add to this the enormous number of sea-elephants that have 

 fallen a prey to sealers of other nationalities, it is not a matter for surprise 

 that these animals have long since been practically extinct, commercially 

 speaking, except at the few points where the physical surroundings afford 

 them protection from their inhuman enemies."^ 



Family OTARIID^. 



The Eared Seals are separable into two supergeneric groups, distin- 

 guishable externally by differences in the character of the pelage, in the 

 length of the ears, in coloration, and in size. These groups, while rather 

 sharply defined, especially as regards the nature of the pelage, are hardly 

 entitled to rank as subfamilies. In the first of these the pelage is coarse 

 and harsh, and without underfur ; the ears are rather short, and the gene- 

 ral coloration is yellowish brown in adults, darker and more reddish brown 

 in the young, especially on the limbs, and the species all attain large size. 

 This group includes the gtntrdi Eiitiietopias, Ofan'a, ZalopJius and Pliocarc- 

 tos, each, except Zaloplnis, being monotypic. They are here mentioned 

 in the order of size, the representatives of the first attaining the largest 

 dimensions. 



The second group includes the Fur Seals of commerce, in which the 

 pelage consists of rather long overhair, beneath which is an abundant coat 

 of very fine, soft, thick underfur, which gives to the peltries their high 

 commercial value. The coloration in adults is grayish, the longer hairs 

 being dark brown tipped with gray ; in old individuals the coloration be- 

 comes decidedly gray, while the young in early life are black. The 

 underfur is generally rich brown, lighter towards the base. This group 

 includes the two genera Callotaria ( = Callorhinus Gray) and Arctocephalus, 

 the former embracing the Fur Seals of the North Pacific and the latter 

 those of the southern seas ; a species was also found formerly on the coast 

 and islands of southern and Lower California, but it is now nearly extinct. 



'Allen, in Proceedings of the Tribunal of the Fur Seal Arbitration, etc., Appendix to the United 

 States Case, Vol. I, 1892, pp. 389, 390. 



