264 



MAMMALS AND BIRDS OF THE NORTH PACIFIC 



into their own habits and customs during the past twenty-five years, it is believed 

 that the cause of decrease of the salmon will be not difficult to find, and this 

 without charging it to the inoffensive sea-lion, whose rookeries constitute one of 

 the greatest attractions to the visitor on the California coast.'' 

 Northern sea- The northern sea-bear (0. iirsina) displays a greater difference in 



Bear. the size of the two sexes than any other eared seal. The males are 



full grown in the sixth year, at which age they measure from 7 to 8 feet long and 

 about 7 feet in girth. The females, on the other hand, which are fully developed 

 by the fifth year, rarely exceed 4 feet in length and 30 inches in girth. The 

 northern sea-bear is thus very much smaller than the northern sea-lion : it has also 



NORTHERN SEA-BEARS 



longer ears, and is furnished with the close under-fur characteristic of all sea-bears, 

 which forms commercial sealskin. In 1890 the American Commercial Company 

 was granted a lease by the Government of the United States conferring upon them 

 the exclusive right to kill, under certain restrictions, fur-seals or sea-bears on the 

 Pribiloff Islands, for commercial purposes. This licence expired in April 1909. 

 Consequently the control of the seal herds reverted to the American Government, 

 who had to decide what measures should be taken for their protection, and to 

 what extent killing should be continued on the islands, or whether it should be 

 altogether prohibited for a certain number of years. The Pribiloffs were acquired 

 by the United States by purchase from Russia about the year 1867 ; and a few 

 years later (1874) it was estimated that they were annually visited by something 

 like four and a half million sea-bears. At the present time these enormous hosts 



