116 SEALS AND SEA-LIONS 



Lion in New York City is about $100. This species possesses 

 great intelligence, and quite recently several specimens have 

 been trained to go through a show performance which is 

 really wonderful, including a most remarkable act in which 

 a Sea-Lion successfully balances a large ball on the point of 

 its nose. 



An important incident in the life history of the Cali- 

 fornia Sea-Lion furnishes a good illustration of the folly of 

 condemning a wild species to destruction on insufficient 

 evidence. 



For several years the fishermen of San Francisco com- 

 plained that the Sea-Lions of the California coast devoured 

 such enormous quantities of salmon and other fish that they 

 were seriously affecting the available supply; besides which 

 they caused great damage to nets and impounded fish. They 

 demanded that the Sea-Lions be destroyed, and finally con- 

 vinced the state authorities that their contentions were well 

 founded. 



It was decided that the animals should be destroyed, by 

 systematic shooting, down to a comparatively small number; 

 and the slaughter was duly ordered. Men were engaged to 

 do the work, in a businesslike way, and an official request for 

 permission to kill on the lighthouse reservations of the Gov- 

 ernment was granted. 



But there were certain naturalists who doubted the entire 

 accuracy of the charges made against the Sea-Lions, and 

 asked for proof in detail. When no evidence of a specific and 

 convincing nature was brought forward, they requested that 

 the slaughter proposed on the Farallone Islands, and other 



