ALASKA. 163 



wary that on the slightest approach a stampede into the water 

 is the certain result. The males come out and locate on the 

 narrow belts of rookery-ground, preferred and selected by 

 them; the cows make their appearance three or four weeks 

 after them, (1st to 6th June,) and are not subjected to that in- 

 tense jealous supervision so characteristic of the fur-seal harem. 

 The bulls fight savagely among themselves, and turn off from 

 the breeding-ground all the younger and weak males. 



The cow sea-lion is not quite half the size of the male, and 

 will measure from 8 to 9 feet in length, with a weight of four 

 and five hundred pounds. She has the same geheral cast of 

 countenance and build of the bull, but as she does not sustain 

 any fasting period of over a week or ten days, she never comes 

 out so grossly fat as the male or "see-catch." 



The sea-lion rookery will be found to consist of about ten to 

 fifteen cow& to the bull. The cow seems at all times to have 

 the utmost freedom in moving from place to place, and to start 

 with its young, picked up sometimes by the nape, into the 

 water, and play together for spells in the surf-wash, a move- 

 ment on the part of the mother ne'ver made by the fur-^eal, 

 and showing, in this respect, much more attention to its off- 

 spring. 



They are divided up into classes, which sustain, in a general 

 manner, but very imperfectly, nearly the same relation one to 

 the other as do those of the fur-seal, of which I have already 

 spoken at length and in detail ; but they cannot be approached, 

 inspected, and managed like the other, by reason of their wild 

 and timid nature. They visit the islands in numbers compara- 

 tively small, (I can only estimate,) not over twenty or twenty- 

 five thousand ouSaintPaul's and contiguous islets, and not more 

 than seven or eight thousand at Saint George. On Saint Paul's 

 Island they occupy a small portion of the breeding-ground at 

 Northeast Point, in common with the Callorhiims, always close 

 to the water, and taking to it at the slightest disturbance or 

 alarm. 



The sea-lion rookery on Saint George's Island is the best 

 Ijlace upon the Seal Islands for close observation of these ani- 

 mals, and the following note was made upon the occasion of 

 one of my visits, (June 15, 1873 :) 



''At the base of cliffs, over 400 feet in height, on the east 

 >shore of the island, on a beach 50 or 60 feet in width at low 

 water, and not over 30 or 40 at flood-tide, lies the only sea-lion 



