778 
that the great bulk of their food consisted 
of squids, hundreds of whose beaks and pens 
were found in the stomachs, while in only 
a few instances were any traces of fish dis- 
covered. 
In 1899, a well-known naturalist, Prof. 
L. L. Dyche, of the University of Kansas, 
spent the months of June, July, August and 
September on the California coast, at a time 
when the sea lions were being slaughtered 
in the alleged interests of the fishermen. 
Professor Dyche became interested in the 
question of their food, and took the trouble 
to examine the stomachs of 25 sea lions, not 
one of which contained so much as a trace 
of fish. The region visited extends from 
Monterey Bay southward along the coast 
for about 25 miles. 
Between June 25th and July 16th, there 
were washed ashore within three miles of 
Point Pinos, at the mouth of Monterey 
Bay, eight sea lions which had been shot, the 
fishermen said, because they were feeding 
onsalmon. Professor Dyche examined the 
stomachs of all of these and has given me 
a detailed record of the contents of each. 
It would take too much space to print 
this in full. Suffice it to state that the re- 
mains of squids and cuttlefish ( Octopus) 
were found in all, and that several were 
filled with large ‘pieces of the giant squid. 
Notwithstanding the fact that at the same 
time and place salmon were being caught 
by fishermen, not a fish scale or bone was 
detected in any of the stomachs. When- 
ever possible Professor Dyche opened the 
stomachs in the presence of the fishermen, 
who invariably expressed the greatest sur- 
prise at the result. On July 20th, Professor 
Dyche moved his headquarters southward 
and established a camp about twelve miles 
below Monterey Bay, between Point Car- 
mel and the lighthouse, near which is an 
extensive rookery of sea lions. Between 
July 20th and August 16th, the stomachs 
of seventeen additional sea lions were ex- 
SCIENCE. 
[N. 8. Vou. XIII. No. 333. 
amined. Hight out of the seventeen were 
well filled with the flesh of the giant squid ; 
two were gorged with large octopus, while 
the remaining seven contained pens and 
beaks of squids, the quantity varying from 
half a pint to about a quart. : 
Professor Dyche was told that there were 
no fish within two or three miles of the 
sea lion rookeries near his camp, as the sea 
lions had caught or driven them away. In 
the face of this statement, he himself 
caught a dozen rock cod one morning be- 
tween shore and the seal rocks, and his 
boatman, George Carr, an old salmon fish- 
erman, caught plenty of rock cod weighing 
from one to eight pounds each, within sixty 
feet of the flat rock where from one to 300 
sea lions landed each day. The water close 
to these rocks, where the sea lions had lived 
for ages, proved to be the best fishing 
ground in the locality. Professor Dyche 
states further that he landed a number of 
times on the rocky islands where in places 
the excrement from the sea lions formed a 
layer a foot thick. He hunted through this 
for fish bones and scales, without being able 
to discover a single one. On the other 
hand, the tough pens from the backs of the 
squids were abundant. 
Professor Dyche found the fishermen loud 
in their denunciation of the sea lions on 
account of their alleged destruction of 
salmon, but, although he was on the fishing 
grounds continuously for more than three 
months, the fishermen were unable to show 
him a single instance in which a sea lion 
had killed a salmon. He adds, ‘‘ You can 
hardly imagine the surprised look on these 
fishermen’s faces when they saw the great 
masses of squid meat roll out of the sea 
lions’ stomachs when cut open.” 
The fact that sea lions in captivity will 
eat fish rather than starve has little bearing 
on the question, and the additional fact 
that salmon in nets are sometimes found 
bitten off or eaten is by itself no evidence 
