362 OUK ARCTIC provincp:. 



When I first returned, in 1873, from the Seal Islands, those au- 

 thors, whose conclusions wex'e accepted prior to my studies there, 

 had agreed in declaring that the sea-lion, so common off the j^ort 

 of San Francisco, was the same animal also common in Alaska, and 

 the Pribylov Islands in especial ; but my drawings fi'om life, and 

 studies, quickly jDointed out the error, for it was seen that the creat- 

 ure most familiar to the Calif orniaus was an entirely different ani- 

 mal from my subject of study on the Seal Islands. In other words, 

 while scattered examples of the Eumetojnas were, and are, unques- 

 tionably about and off the harbor of San Francisco, yet nine tenths 

 of the sea-lions there observed were a different animal — they were 

 the Zalophus californianus. This Zalophus is not much more than 

 half the size of Eiimetajytas, relatively ; it has the large, round, soft 

 eye of the fur-seal, and the more attenuated Newfoundland-dog-like 

 muzzle ; and it never roars, but breaks out incessantly with a honk, 

 honk, honking bark, or howl. 



No example of Zalophus has ever been observed in the waters 

 of Bering Sea, nor do I believe that it goes northward of Cape 

 Flattery, or really much above Mendocino, Cal. 



According to the natives of St. George, some sixty or seventy 

 years ago the Eumetopias held almost exclusive possession of that 

 island being there in great numbers, some two or three hundred 



regular or direct course of trq,vel up or down the northwest coast. They are 

 principally seen in the open sea, eight or ten miles from land, outside the 

 heads of the Straits of Fuca, and from there as far north as Dixon Sound. 

 During May and June they are aggregated in greatest numbers here, though 

 examples are reported the whole year around. The only fur-seal which I saw, 

 or was noted by the crew of the Reliance, in her cruise, June 1st to 9tli, from 

 Port Townsend to Sitka, was a solitary " holluschak "' that we disturbed at sea 

 well out from the lower end of Queen Charlotte's Islands ; then, from Sitka 

 to Kadiak, we saw nothing of the fur-seal until we hauled off from Point Gre- 

 ville, and coming down to Ookamok Islet, a squad of agile " holluschickie " 

 suddenly appeared among a school of humpback whales, sporting in the most 

 extravagant manner around, under, and even leaping over the wholly indif- 

 ferent cetacea. From this eastern extremity of Kadiak Island clear up to the 

 Pribylov group we daily saw them here and there in small bands, or also as 

 lonely voyageurs, all headed for one goal. We were badly outsailed by 

 them; indeed, the chorus of a favorite "South Sea pirate's" song, as inces- 

 santly sung on the cutter's " 'tween decks," seemed to have special adaptation 

 to them : 



" For they bore down from the wind'wiard, 

 A sailin' seven knots to our four'n." 



