268 EUMETOPIAS STELLERI STELLER'S SEA LION. 



Seas, to the coast of Siberia, including the peninsula ot Kam- 

 schatka and the island of Saghalien, the mode of capture by the 

 natives changes from that of the eastern continental shores.* 

 The inlets and rivers of these Asiatic regions swarm with sal- 

 mon from June to September, and at this season the Seals fol- 

 low and prey upon them as they ascend the streams. The 

 natives then select such places as will be left nearly bare at 

 low tide, and then set their nets which are made of seal- 

 thongs to strong stakes, so placed as to form a curve open to 

 the confluence of the stream. These nets are similar to gill- 

 nets, the meshes being of a size to admit a SeaPs head, which 

 gives free passage to the shoals of fish and the pursuing ani- 

 mal, as soon as entangled in the net, struggles forward in his 

 efforts to escape, but is held firmly in the meshes, where it re- 

 mains till low water, when the natives, in their flat-bottomed 

 skin-boats, approach and dispatch the victim with their rude 

 bone implements. As the season becomes warm, tne animals 

 of both sexes congregate in their favorite rookeries, and the 

 females climb to the most inaccessible places among the rocks 

 and crags to bring forth and nurture their offspring. But here 

 they are hunted by the natives accustomed to the use of fire- 

 arms, who shoot them for the skins of the young ones, which 

 are used for clothing. 



a ln this region also, during the spring and fall, after the 

 ' net-sealing 7 is over, great numbers of Sea Lions are captured 

 upon the floating ice, with gun or spear ; and during the rigor- 

 ous months, the seal-hunters cut through the congealed mass 

 what they term i breathing-holes ? . Through these the Seals 

 emerge, to the frosted surface, and, if the sun peers through the 

 wintry clouds, the creatures, warmed into new life, may stroll 

 hundreds of yards away 5 the watchful hunter, secreted behind 

 a cake of ice or a bank of snow, rushes out from his covert, and 

 places a covering over the hole, effectually preventing the an- 

 imal's escape, and then dispatches it with knife and spear. Its 

 skin is stripped off, scraped clean, closely rolled, and laid away 



* Although Captain Scammon purports to be speaking of "Sea Lions," I 

 have recently become convinced (since the copy of tliis article was sent to 

 the printer) that very little, if anything, in this paragraph and the next 

 relates to any species of Eared Seal. In the first place, the locality is one 

 not known to be frequented, except casually, by Otaries, while the account 

 of the capture in nets and in the ice, and especially the reference to 

 "breathing holes," renders it almost certain that the animals referred to 

 are Phocids. 



