THE ALASKAN SEA-LION. 363 



thousand strong ; and they aver, also, that the fur-seals then were 

 barely permitted to land by these animals, and in no great number ; 

 therefore, they assert they were directed by the Russians (i.e., their 

 own ancestry) to hunt and worry the sea-lions off from the island : 

 the result was that, as the sea-lions left, the fur-seals came, so 

 to-day CaUorhinus occupies nearly the same ground which Eumeto- 

 pias alone covered sixty years ago. I call attention to this state- 

 ment of the people because it is, or seems to be, corroborated in the 

 notes of a French naturalist and traveller, who, in his description of 

 the Island of St. George, which he visited sixty years ago, makes 

 substantially the same representation.* 



That great intrinsic value to the domestic service of the Aleutes 

 rendered by the flesh, fat, and sinews of this animal, together with 

 its skin, arouses the natives of St. Paul and St. George, who annu- 

 ally make drives of " seevitchie," by which they capture two or 

 three hundred, as the case may be. On St. George driving is 

 positively difficult, owing to the character of the land itself : hence, 

 a few only are secured there ; but at St. Paul unexceptional advan- 

 tages are found on Northeast Point for the capture of these shy and 

 timid brutes. The natives of St Paul, therefore, are depended 

 upon to secure the necessary number of skins required by both 

 islands for their boats and other purposes. This capture of the 

 sea-lion is the only serious business which the people have on St. 

 Paul. It is a labor of great care, industry, and some physical risk 

 for the Aleutian hunters, f 



* Choris : Voyage Pittoresque autour du Monde. 



f A curious, though doubtless authentic, story was told me in this connec- 

 tion illustrative of the strength and energy of the sea-lion bull when at 

 bay. Many years ago (1847), on St. Paul Island, a drive of September sea- 

 lions was brought down to the village in the usual style ; but when the na- 

 tives assembled to kill them, on account of a great scarcity at that time of 

 powder on the island, it was voted best to lance the old males also, as well as 

 the females, rather than shoot them in the customary style. The people had 

 hardly set to work at the task when one of their number, a small, elderly, 

 though tough, able-bodied Aleut, while thrusting his lance into the " life " of a 

 large bull, was suddenly seen to fall on his back directly under that huge brute's 

 head. Instantly the powerful jaws of the " seevitchie " closed upon the waist- 

 band, apparently, of the native, and, lifting the yelling man aloft as a cat 

 would a kitten, the sea-lion shook and threw him high into the air, away over 

 the heads of his associates, who rushed up to the rescue and quickly destroyed 

 the animal by a dozen furious spear-thrusts ; yet death did not loosen its 

 clinched jaws, in which were the tattered fragments of Ivan's clothing. 



