256 EUMETOPIAS STELLERI STELLER's SEA LION 



to bring their skins to the drying-frames. It sometimes 

 requires five days to make the journey, as at frequent intervals 

 they have to be allowed to rest. It is a somewhat dangerous 

 animal, and the men frequently get seriously hurt by it in driv- 

 ing and killing it. They are driven together in the same man- 

 ner as the Fur Seals are; and while confining each other by 

 treading upon each others' flippers the small ones are killed 

 with lances, but the larger ones have to be shot. 



" This animal is the most completely consumed of any on tin- 

 island. Their flesh is preferred to that of the Seal for drying 

 for winter use. After the skins are taken off (two thousand of 

 which are required annually to supply the trading-posts of the 

 Territory), they are spread in piles of twenty-five each, with 

 the flesh side down, and left to heat until the hair is loosened ; 

 it is then scraped off, and the skins are stretched on frames to 

 dry. The blubber is removed from the carcass for fuel or oil, 

 and the flesh is cut in strips and dried for winter use. The lin- 

 ings of their throats are saved and tanned for making the legs, 

 of boots and shoes, and the skin of the flippers is used for the 

 soles. Their stomachs are turned, cleaned, and dried, and are 

 used to put the oil in when boiled out. The intestines are 

 dressed and sewed together into water-proof frocks, which are 

 worn while hunting and fishing in the boats. The sinews of the 

 back are dried and stripped to make the thread with which to 

 sew together the intestines, and to fasten the skins to the canoe - 

 frames. The natives receive thirty-five cents apiece for the 

 skins when ready for shipment. But these skins are not so much 

 valued by the trader for the profit he makes on their sale, as 

 for. the advantage it gives him in bargaining with the hunters, 

 since by buying these they are able to secure a right to the 

 purchase of* the hunter's furs on his return, the natives always 

 considering such contracts binding."* 



The following careful description of their movements on laud 

 was also communicated to me by Mr. Theodore Lyrnan in 1870, 

 who had recently observed the Sea Lions on the " Seal Bocks" 

 near San Francisco. His remarks may, however, relate in part 

 to the smaller species. 



" These rocks," he says, " are beset with hundreds of these 

 animals, some still, some moving, some on the land, and some 

 in the water. As they approach to effect a landing, the head 

 only appears decidedly above water. This is their familiar 



*Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., ii, pp. 64, 65. 



