272 EUMETOPIAS STELLERI STELLER'S SEA LION. 



rushing in pell-mell, roll and tumble in the water as though it 

 afforded immense relief to their heated and wearied bodies. 

 When it is convenient to do so they are allowed to rest over 

 night in the water, by which they acquire fresh vigor for the 

 comijletion of the journey. This severe and unnatural exertion 

 overheats and exhausts these poor beasts and necessitates long 

 halts to enable them to rest and cool. It usually requires five 

 days to make the journey, averaging two miles per day. Three 

 men conduct the herd, and camp at night with their charge. 

 On starting they kill a young cub for their subsistence, using 

 the flesh for food and the blubber for fuel in cooking it and 

 making their tea. 



"After two days' travel the animals become very tired, and as 

 soon as they are permitted to halt they drop at full length with 

 their limbs extended. But their rest is not peaceful, for some 

 restless one soon starts up and flounders over the others as if 

 seeking a better place. This disturbs the whole herd, which 

 constantly keeps up a low moaning apparently expressive of 

 sore distress. A most apt description of such a scene was once 

 given by a military officer who was seated with me on the edge 

 of a sand-dune watching a herd resting in this condition. After 

 a long silence he observed, ' This is the first thing I have ever 

 seen or heard that realizes my youthful conception of the tor- 

 ment of the condemned in purgatory.'" 



"When the herd is once fairly halted and at rest it requires 

 from half an hour to an hour to get it moving again in march- 

 ing order. The process is quite novel and worth describing. 

 The Sea Lions have now become so accustomed to their captors 

 that they will sooner fight than run from them, and they are 

 too much deafened by their own noise to hear or fear any other 

 sound. As they lie on the ground in a compact mass, one of 

 the men takes an umbrella (before the introduction of umbrellas 

 a flag was used) and goes twenty to thirty yards to the rear of 

 the herd and apjiroaching stealthily until he is quite near sud- 

 denly expands the umbrella and runs with it along the edge of 

 the herd ; then closing it he retires to repeat the maneuver. 

 This has the effect to rouse the rear rank, which thus suddenly 

 alarmed idi^uges forward and arouses those in front, which 

 immediately begin struggling and biting. The return of the 

 man with the umbrella communicates another shock and adds 

 another wave to the sluggish mass. This is repeated at intervals 

 of four or five minutes till the successive shocks have aroused 



