224 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



sinews are used for threads for binding their skin-canoes, and to the flesh of this species there is given 

 a decided preference. 



Steller's Sea Lion has a wider distribution, probably, than 0. ursina, and stretches around Kamst- 

 chatka and the Asiatic coast to the Kurile Islands. Moreover, on the American coast as far as Cali- 

 fornia they are occasionally met with. Indeed, one of the sights at San Francisco is the " Ocean House," 

 a large hotel opposite the Seal Rocks at the mouth of the bay, whence a good view is obtained of a 

 " rookery " of Sea Lions, now rigidly preserved by the American Government. They also inhabit the 

 Farallone Islands about thirty miles from San Francisco. 



The natives of Kamstchatka, to the coast of Siberia, capture the Sea Lions differently from 

 the Pribyloif Islanders. In the summer months, Salmon swarm at the mouths of the rivers, the 

 Seals following and preying on them. Strong wide-meshed nets, made of Seal-thong, are staked 

 in a curve open to the confluence of the stream. The fish find a free passage, but the pursuing 

 Seals become entangled, and the natives in flat-bottomed skin-boats approach and despatch the 

 victims with rude bone implements. In the spring and fall they capture them on the floating ice, and 

 during winter watch for their rising out of their breathing-holes to rest awhile, while the hunter deals 

 destruction from behind a snow-bank or ice-cake. These natives convert the prepared hide for the Dog 

 and Reindeer sledges and other purposes, and the blubber is a godsend. 



GILLIESPIE'S HAIR SEAL,* OR SCHLEGEL'S JAPANESE OTARY. This animal also inhabits the bays 

 and islands of the Californian coast, but the first good account of it came from the pen of Professor 

 Schlegel, of Leyden, in his " Fauna Japonica," though, curiously enough, he confounded it with 

 Steller's Sea Lion. It undoubtedly frequents the Japanese coasts, and, possibly, other spots in the 

 North Pacific. Dr. Macbain, in describing a skull from California, showed its specific distinction. 

 Indeed, from its having one pair less of upper molars, a narrow muzzle and facial profile, and great 

 skull-crest, it has been placed by Gill and others in a separate genus (Zalophus). But as before indi- 

 cated, we prefer to consider the whole of 

 these Sea Lions as belonging to Otaria. 

 The colour of this animal much resembles 

 that of the last, or slightly more of a pale 

 brownish-grey, underneath yellowish, but 

 also darker in the limbs. The sexes ap- 

 proach each other in this respect. It is 

 smaller in size than 0. Stelleri, the largest 

 known male being little over six feet long, 

 and the female relatively smaller. 



HOOKER'S SEA BEAR.t Among the 

 collection obtained during the eventful 

 voyage, under Captain Sir J. C. Ross, in 

 the Erebus and Terror to the Antarctic 

 regions, were the skin and skeleton of a Sea 

 Bear from the Auckland Islands, which Dr. 

 Gray named after the celebrated botanist 

 of the Expedition, Dr. (afterwards Sir) 

 Joseph D. Hooker. No account of the 

 life-history of the animal accompanied 

 these remains, but the narrow skull, 

 deeply concave palate-bones, and other 

 osteological features, clearly showed its 

 specific distinction. The precise geogra- 

 phical distribution of this Sea Bear there 



after became a knotty point, and from general outward resemblance of the Otary tribe one to the 

 other it has been confounded with several of them. The investigations of Mr. J. W. Clark of Cam- 

 bridge, however, set this at rest, and without enlarging into particulars, we shall briefly say that 

 * Otaria Gilliespii. f Otaria, Hookeri, the genus Arctocephalus and Phocarctos of Gray. 



PALATE OF HOOKER'S 



SEA BEAR. 



PALATE OF PATAGONIAN 



SEA LION. 



