408 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



the younger males range in large squads in the sea and on the 

 beach, and from these bachelor squadrons are taken those which 

 furnish the required 100,000 skins. It is found that the young 

 four-year-old male furnishes the best skin, and the natives 

 select by careful management droves of these, and drive them 

 further inland, where they kill and skin them. 



A small colony of " Sea Lions" is preserved on the islands 

 for the subsistence of the natives, who find its flesh more 

 palatable and its skin more useful than that of the Fur Seal. 



All writers agree in describing the very playful character of 

 the young, and many intelligent traits might be mentioned. 

 One hunter had his rifle in hand levelled at the head of an old 

 "Sea Lion" which was roaring and barking at him from the 

 water, and had his finger in the act of pulling the trigger, when 

 a cub swam up to the irascible parent and put up his nose for a 

 kiss, which was immediately bestowed. This had such an effect 

 on the sealer's heart, he not having seen his own family for some 

 time, that' his gun was lowered and the beast allowed to go in 

 safety. Another observer coming suddenly upon the nursing of 

 some " Sea Lionesses," said that they looked at him with so 

 intelligent, so distressed, and yet so lady-like an air, that he 

 retired with the sense of having committed an impropriety. 



The Walruses (whether two or one species) may be considered 

 as now nearly confined to the Arctic Ocean, though at one time 

 they came much farther south. In 153-1 they occurred as far- 

 south as Cape Sable in Nova Scotia, exemplifying the rapidity 

 with which Pinnipeds are exterminated on their breeding-grounds. 

 In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries great numbers were 

 killed in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They are now found in 

 Western American waters, south of Davis' Straits, and the north 

 part of Hudson's Bay. East of Greenland they are still met 

 with on the N.E. coasts of Spitzbergen and the eastern shores 

 of Nova Zembla in considerable numbers. In the Pacific they 

 occur on the American and Asiatic coasts as far south as the 

 Aleutian Islands, and in numbers (according to a late writer in 

 the 'Century') in Bristol Bay and Norton Sound. 



The chase of the Walrus has been so often and so popularly 

 described that I need not dwell upon it. In one respect this 

 animal differs remarkably in its domestic economy from its 

 The young is suckled by its mother until nearly 



