Or.DEU V. THE CAENIVOKA. 223 



receiving wounds that would instantly have killed any other animal, it will 

 live sometimes for weeks. These animals have a kind of Spartan rule in 

 their society. No sea bear is allowed, by sea-bear law, to desert his post and 

 flee during a battle. Should he do so he will be severely punished by the 

 othei's. 



Tins species is sought for on account of its commercial value, the fine, 

 black, and curly-haired skin of the younger animals being jiarticularly 

 esteemed, and classed among the finer furs which find a ready sale in the 

 Chinese market. " The llussian American Fur Company derives the best 

 f)art of its revenue from the sea bears, and for prudential reasons allows only 

 a limited number to be killed annually, on the Island of St. Paul, one of the 

 Pribilow group, their favorite summer haunt. A certain number of Aleuts, 

 located there under liussian superintendence, engage in the chase. It begins 

 in the Litter part of September, on a cold, foggy day, when the wind blows 

 from the side where the animals are assembled on the rocky shore. The 

 boldest huntsmen, accustomed to clamber over stones and clitls, open the 

 way ; then follow the older people and the children, and the chief personage 

 of the band comes last, the better to direct and survey tlic movements of his 

 men, who are all armed with clubs. The main object is to cut off the herd 

 as quickly as possible from the sea. All the grown up males and females arc 

 spared and allowed to escape, but the younger animals are all driven land- 

 ward, to the distance, sometimes, of a cou[)le of miles, and there clubbed to 

 death. Those which are only four months old are doomed, without excep- 

 tion ; while of the others, only the males are killed, and the females are 

 politely led back again to the coast, and restored to their respective families. 

 For many days after this cruel slaughter, the bereaved mothers swim about 

 the island seeking their young, and weeping and mourning piteously for their 

 cubs, which they shall see no more." 



Otarid Ursina. — The Ursine Seal, or Sea Bear of Foster. On examin- 

 ing the external figure of the sea bear of the Southern Ocean, we cannot 

 perceive any character to indicate a species distinct from the sea Ijcar of the 

 north, and certainly in mental and moral characters there is no difference at 

 all. Foster, the naturalist of Captain Cook's expedition, refers to these ani- 

 mals thus : " We soon perceived that another kind of seal occupied this part 

 of the island, — New Year's Island, in Staten Land. These were no other 

 than the sea bears, which we had already seen at Dusky Bay, but they were 

 here infinitely more numerous, and grown to a much larger size, equal to 

 that assigned them by Steller. They are, however, far inferior to the sea 

 lions, the males ne\cr being above eight or nine feet long, and thick in pro- 

 portion. Their hair is dark brown, sprinkled with gray, and much longer 

 on the whole body than that of the sea lion, but it is does not form a mane. 



