88 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



interspersed over tbe anterior regions down to those posterior. I have never seen any of the old bulls or eows 

 tlms mottled, and this is likely due to some irregularity of shedding in the younger animals; for I have not notiecd 

 it early in the season, and it seems to fairly fade away so as not to be discerned on tlie same animal at the close of 

 its summer solstice. Many of the old bulls have a grizzled or "salt and pepper" look during the shedding period, 

 which is from the 10th of August up to the 10th or 20th of November. The pups, when born, are a rich dark-chestnut 

 brown; this coat they shed in October, and take one much lighter in its stead; still darker, however, than their 

 parents. 



Arrival at and departure from the Pribylov islands. — The time of arrival at, stay on, and 

 departure from, the islands, is about the same as that which I have recorded as characteristic of the fur-seal; 

 but, if the winter is an open, mild one, some of the sea-bons will frequently be seen about the shores during 

 the whole j'ear; and then the natives occasionally shoot them, long after the fur-seals have entirely disa])i)eared. 



Great range of sea-lion: It is not restricted to the seal-islands — Again, it does not confine 

 its landing to the Pribylov islands alone, as the fur-seal unquestionably does, with reference to such terrestrial 

 location in our own country. On the contrary, it is a frequent visitor to almost all of the Aleutian islands, and 

 ranges, as I have said before, over the mainland coast of Alaska, south of Bristol bay, and about the Siberian shores 

 to the westward, throughout the Kuriles and the Japanese northern waters.* 



Differences bet^vtien Zalophus and Eujietopias. — When I first returned, in 1873, from the seal-islands, 

 those authors, whose conclusions were accejrted prior to my studies there, had agreed in declaring that the 

 sea-lion, so common off the port of San Francisco, was the same animal also common in Alaska, and the Pribylov 

 islands in especial ; but my drawings from life, and studies, quickly pointed out the error, for it was seen that 

 the creature most familiar to the Californians was an entirely different animal from my subject of study on the 

 seal islands. In other words, while scattered examples of the Eumctopias were, and are, unquestionably about 

 and off the harbor of San Francisco, yet nine-tenths of the sea-lions there observed were a difiereut animal — 

 they were the Zalophus Californianus. This Zalophus is not much more than half the size of Eumetopias, relatively ; 

 it has the large, ronnd, soft eye of the fur-seal, and the more attenuated Newfoundlaud-dog-like muzzle; and 

 it never roars, but breaks out incessantly with a /(0?(/.', honl-, honldng bark, or howl. 



No example of Zalophus has e^er been observed in the waters of Bering sea, nor do I believe th.at it goes 

 northward of Cape Flattery. 



Early disposition of sea-lions on St. George. — According to the natives of St. George, some fifty 

 or sixtj- years ago the Eumctopias held almost exclusive possession of the island, being there in great numbers, 

 some two or three hundred 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 say, that they were directed bj- the Eussians 

 (that is, their ancestry) to hunt and worry the sea-lions oft' from the island, the result being that, as the sea-lions 

 left, the fur-seals came, so that to-day they occupy nearly the same ground which the Eumetopias alone covered 

 sixty years ago. I call attention to this statement of the people because it is, or seems to be, corroborated in 

 the notes of a French naturalist and traveler, who, in his description of the island of St. George, which he 

 visited fifty years ago, makes substantially the same i'epresentation;t but directly to the contrary, and showing 

 how difficult it is to ti'ace these faint records of the facts, I give the account as rendered by Bishop Veniaminov, 

 which I translate and place in my appendix. The reader will notice that the Russian author differs entirely from 

 the natives and the Frenchman; for, by his tabulation, almost as many fur-seals were taken on St. George during 

 the first years of occupation as were taken from St. Paul; and according to these figures, again continued, the 



* The winter of Vili-Ti, which I passed on the Prihylov islands, was so ligorous th.at the shores were ice-houDd and the sea coverrd 

 with floes from .January until the 28th of May; nence, I did not have an opportunity of seeing, for nij'self, whether the sea-lion remains 

 about its breeding-grounds there throughout that period. The natives say that a few of them, when the sea is open, are always to be 

 found, at any day during the winter .and early spring, hauled out at Northeast point, on Otter island, and around St. George. They are, 

 in my opinion, correct; and, being in such small numbers, the "seevitehie" undoubtedly find enough subsistence in local Crustacea, pisccs, 

 and other food. The natives, also, furtlier stated that none of the sea-lions which we observe on the islands during the breediug-seasou 

 leave the waters of Bering sea from the date of their birth to the time of their death. I am also inclined to agree with this proposition, 

 as a general rule, though it would be strange if Pribylov sea-lions did not occasionally slip into tbe North Pacific, through and below the 

 Aleutian chain, a short distance, even to traveling as far to the eastward as Cook's inlet. Eumetopms SteVcri is well known to breed .at 

 m.any places between Attoo and Kadiak islands. I did not see it at St. Matthew, however, and I do not think it has ever bred there, 

 although this island is only "200 miles away to the northward of the seal-islands — too many polar bears. Whalers speak of having shot 

 it in the ice-packs in a much higher latitude, nevertheless, than that of St. Matthew. I can find no record of its breeding anywhere on 

 the islands or mainland coast of Alaska north of the 57th parallel or south of the 53d parallel of north latitude. It is common on the 

 coast of Kamtchatka, the Kurile islands, and the Commander group, in Russian waters. 



There are vague and ill-digested rumors of finding JCumdojnas on the shores of Prince of Wales and Queen Charlotte islands in 

 breeding-rookeries; I doubt it. If it were so, it would be authoritatively known by this time. We do find it in small numbers on the 

 Farralone rocks, off the entrance to the harbor of San Francisco, where it breeds in company with, though sexually apart from, an 

 overwhelming majority of Zulophufi; and it is creditably reported as breeding again to the southward, on the Santa Barbara, Guadaloupe, 

 and other islands of southern and Lower California, consorting there, as on the I^arralones, with an infinitely larger number of the lesser- 

 bodied Zalophus. 



\ Choris : Voyage PMoresque autour du Monde. 



