THE ALASKAN SEA-LION. 367 



direction they desire the animals to travel ; in this manner they 

 escort and urge the " seevitchie " along to their final resting and 

 slaughter near the village. The young lions and the females, 

 being much lighter than old males, less laden with fat or blubber, 

 take the lead, for they travel twice and thrice as easy and as fast 

 as the latter ; these, by reason of their immense avoirdupois, are 

 incapable of moving ahead more than a few rods at a time, then 

 they are completely checked by sheer loss of breath, though the 

 vanguard of the females allures them on ; but when an old sea-lion 

 feels his wind coming short, he is sure to stop, sullenly and surlily 

 turning upon the drivers, not to move again until his lungs are clear. 

 In this method and manner of direction the natives stretch 

 a herd out in extended file, or as a caravan, over the line of march, 

 and as the old bulls pause to savagely survey the field and catch 

 their breath, showing their wicked teeth, the drivers have to exer- 

 cise every art and all their ingenuity in arousing them to fresh 

 efforts. This they do by clapping boards and bones together, firing 

 fusees, and waving flags ; and of late, and best of all, the blue ging- 

 ham umbrella repeatedly opened and closed in the face of an old 

 bull has been a more effective starter than all the other known arti- 

 fices or savage expedients of the natives. * 



* The curious behavior of sea-lions in the Big Lake when they are en 

 route and driven from Novastoshnah to the village deserves mention. After 

 the drove gets over the sand dunes and beach between Webster's house and 

 the extreme northeastern head of the lake, a halt is called and the drove 

 44 penned" on the bank there. Then, when the sea-lions are well rested, they 

 are started up and pell mell into the water. Two natives in a bidarka keep 

 them from turning out from shore into the broad bosom of Meesulkmahnee, 

 while another bidarka paddles in their rear and follows their swift passage 

 right down the eastern shore. In this method of procedure the drive carries 

 itself nearly two miles by water in less than twenty minutes from the time the 

 sea-lions are first turned in at the north end to that moment when they are 

 driven out at the southeastern elbow of the Big Pond. The shallowness of 

 the water here accounts probably for the strange failure of these sea-lions to 

 regain their liberty, and it so retards their swimming as to enable the bidarka, 

 with two men, to keep abreast of their leaders easily, as they plunge ahead ; 

 and, "as one goes, so all go sheep," it is not necessary to pay attention to 

 those which straggle behind in the wake. They are stirred up by a second 

 bidarka, and none make the least attempt to diverge from that track which 

 the swifter mark out in advance. If they did, they could escape " scot-free" 

 in any one of the twenty minutes of this aquatic passage. 



By consulting the map of St. Paul it will be observed that in a direct line 



