344 CALLORHINUS URSINUS NORTHERN FUR SEAL. 



upon the* water. By this means the boat is frequently over- 

 turned and the people drowned, unless he who steers it be very 



skillful, and observes the course of the animal They 



fasten their fore paws in the rocks, and thus draw up their body, 

 which they can move but slowly in such places, but upon a 

 plain, one is in danger of being overtaken by them. Upon 

 Bering's Island there are such numbers of them that they cover 

 the whole shore; so that travellers are frequently obliged for 

 safety to leave the sands and level country and go over the hills 

 and rocky i^laces. It is remarkable that in this island the Sea 

 Cats are found only upo the south coast which looks towards 

 Kamtsclmtka. The reason for this may be, that this is the first 

 land they meet with going east from the Kronotzkoy pass."* 



Steller and Krascheninikow both evidently considered the 

 " Sea Cats " dangerous to man, both on land and in the sea. 

 They also attributed to them a degree of magnanimity and 

 intelligence in relation to their contests with each other uncon- 

 firmed by modern observers. In several respects the accounts 

 of these authors in the main virtually identical border uiK)n 

 the mythical, but, generally speaking, are remarkably free from 

 exaggeration, considering the times at which they were written. 



As already stated, they formed the source of all our knowl- 

 edge of these strange beasts i)rior to the beginning of the pres- 

 ent decade. Choris makes only very brief mention of them 

 and says very little about their habits, t Veniaminov, in his 

 '^Zaineska" published at Saint Petersburg, in Eussian, in 1840, 

 and known to me only as quoted and translated by Mr. H. W. 

 Elliott,! has given valuable statistical information respecting 

 the sealing business as prosecuted by the Eussians at the Pry- 

 bilo V Islands, but seems to have given no detailed account of their 

 habits. Our first imi)ortant recent information respecting the 

 economy of these animals is that given by Captain Charles 



* Kraschenlnikow's Hist. Kamtscliatka, Grieve's Englisli translation, pp. 

 123, 131. 



tHis account in full is as follows: "L'ours marins, en russe sivoidch, con- 

 Tre par millidrs les rivages des Lies Kotoviya [Islands of Saint Paul and 

 Saint George], ou sont jet^es abondauiment des plantes marines (fucus). 

 On entend de tr^s-loin le cri de ces animavix, lorsqu'on est en mer. Les 

 femelles sont beaucoup plus petites que les males ; elles oat le corps plus 

 fluet et decouleur jaunatre. Les males ont jusqu'a six pied de liaut lors- 

 qu'ils Invent la tete ; les jeunes sont ordinaixement d'un brun noir ; il parait 

 que les femelles ne font jamais jilus d'un petit." From the description of 

 "lies S. Georges et S. Paul," iu "Yoy. pittoresq. autour du Monde. " 



* Condition of Affairs iu Alaska, pp. 241-242. 



