230 SEA-LION. 



coasts of America in July. They are not so migratory as 

 some other species, but still have their summer and winter 

 quarters. They live chiefly on rocky shores, and desert rocks 

 of the ocean, on which they climb, and their roaring is said 

 to be useful in the foggy weather of those regions, by warn- 

 ing navigators to avoid destruction. 



Though the males have a terrible aspect, yet they take 

 night on the first appearance of man ; and if surprised in 

 their sleep, they are panic-struck, sighing deeply, and in their 

 attempt to escape, get quite confused, tumble down, and 

 tremble so much, that they are scarcely able to move their 

 limbs. If, however, reduced to extremity, they grow desper- 

 ate, turn on their enemy with great fury and noise, and put 

 even the most valiant to flight. On this account the Kam- 

 skatkas never attack them in the open sea, nor without 

 many precautions on land. They usually watch their oppor- 

 tunity to find one asleep, when the most courageous amongst 

 them strikes their harpoon into the creature, and takes to his 

 heels as fast as he can ; his comrades then fasten the line 

 , attached to the harpoon to a strong stake, and its flight thus 

 arrested, they shoot at it with arrows, and dart their lances, 

 until being nearly overcome, they venture in and despatch it 

 with their clubs. They often also employ poisoned arrows 

 with effect. It is at the same time true that many of the 

 natives of those regions, from the great size and power of 

 these animals, attach a kind of glory to the destruction of a 

 Sea-Lion, and that some of them will hunt it, at great peril 

 to themselves, for many successive days, by sea and land, 

 without any other compass than the stary heaven. 



Though these animals are naturally savage and brutal, 

 yet in the long-run they become familiar with man. Thus 

 Steller tells us that he lived for six days in a hovel in the 

 very midst of them, and they soon became intimate. They 

 observed what he was doing with great calmness, laid them- 

 selves down close beside him, and would suffer him to seize 

 their cubs. He had thus an excellent opportunity of study- 

 ing their habits, and once saw one which had been robbed of 



