330 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA [No. 55 



recent years a small grizzly ha,s occupied southern Idaho, and pos- 

 sibly the species may still be represented in some of the great lava- 

 bed country stretching between Oregon and Yellowstone Park. 



In 1916 William F. Schnabel sent the Biological Survey ^ome notes 

 from an old Piute chief, Yakima Jim, who told him that long ago 

 there were so many bears in the Steens Mountains that the Indians 

 did not dare to go into the mountains alone, but always two or more 

 together. In 1896, when Merriam and the writer were first in the 

 Steens Mountains, and since then, it has been impossible to learn of 

 any trace of grizzly bears there, and they were probably killed out 

 at an early date. Whether they were the Idaho grizzly or the 

 Yellowstone Park grizzly, or neither, will probably never be known. 



ORDER PINNIPEDIA 

 Seals, Sea Lions, Sea Elephants, and Walruses 



Family OTARIIDAE: Eared Seals 

 EUMETOPIAS JUBATA (SCHBEBEB) 



STELLEB'S SEA LION; NORTHERN SEA LION; KLE'-TJH-TJN of the Kwakiool 



(G. M. D.) 



Phoca jubata Schreber, Saugthiere, v. 3, p. 300, 1776. 



Eumetopias stelleri True, U. S. Natl. Mus., Proc. (1884) 7: 607, 1885. 



Type locality. North Pacific Ocean. 



General characters. Size large (pi. 46) ; neck long 1 and heavy; form highly 

 modified for life in the ocean; external ears small and pointed; front feet 

 broad paddlelike flippers without nails or distinct digits; hind feet flipperlike 

 but reversible and useful on land, with 5 distinct terminal lobes and small 

 straight nails on top of 3 middle digits ; rostrum broad ; skull with low sagittal 

 crest in males, none in females; molars %, small and pointed, with wide 

 space in front of posterior premolars; eyes large; vibrissae few but very 

 coarse and rigid; tail rudimentary; hair short and coarse without underfur. 

 Color uniform brown or yellowish brown all over when dry dark brown when 

 wet, without spots or markings. Young darker brown than adults. Voice a 

 heavy, prolonged roar, or deep bass growl. 



Measurements. Length of old male, said to be 12 to 13 feet; tail, 3 or 4 

 inches; ear, iy 2 inches. Length of female, 8 to 9 feet. Weight of old male 

 estimated 1,500 to 2,000 pounds ; of female 600 to 1,000 pounds. 



Distribution and habitat. Shores of the North Pacific from 

 Bering Strait south to the Santa Cruz Islands, Calif., and to Japan. 

 Along the coast of Oregon, Steller's is the common sea lion seen 

 in the surf or lying on the rocky islands and points. In 1814 Alex- 

 ander Henry reported one seen in the mouth of the Columbia am 

 several very large individuals seen and five killed in the Columbia 

 near Oak Point, some 40 or 50 miles above the mouth of the rive 

 (1897, vol. 2, p. 850). 



On the complaints that great numbers of salmon were destroy* 

 by seals and sea lions, the Oregon Legislature in 1900 passed a bi] 

 authorizing the payment of a bounty of $2.50 on the scalp of eacl 

 seal or sea lion killed along the coast of Oregon, or within 1 marine 

 league off shore. A tax on fishing gear was levied to finance the 

 bounty system, and later the bounty was raised to $5 and even $10 a 

 scalp. Official records show that from 1921 to 1926 bounties were 

 paid by the State on scalps of 8,965 sea lions and hair seals, of which 

 the greater number seems to have been seals (Scheffer, 1928, p. 12). 

 Most of these animals were killed with dynamite or shot with rifles, 



