154 ALASKA. 



rookery on Saint George's Island — some three or four thousand 

 cows and bulls. The entire circuit of this rookery-belt was 

 passed over by us, the big, timorous bulls rushing off into the 

 water as quickly as the cows, all leaving their young. Many 

 of the females, perhaps half of them, had only just given birth 

 to their young. These pups will weigh at least twenty to twen- 

 ty-five pounds on an average when born, are of a dark, choca- 

 late-brown, with the eye as large as the adult, only being a suf- 

 fused, watery, gray-blue, where the sclerotic coat is well and 

 sharply defined in its maturity. They are about 2 feet in length, 

 some longer and some smaller. As all the pups seen to-day 

 were very young, some at this instant only born, they were dull 

 and apathetic, not seeming to notice us much. There are, I 

 should say, about one-sixth of the sea-lions in number on this 

 island, when compared with Saint Paul's. As these animals 

 lie here under the cliff's, they cannot be approached and driven j 

 but should they haul a few hundred rods up to the south, then 

 they can be easily captured. They have hauled in this manner 

 always until disturbed in 1808, and will undoubtedly do so 

 again if not molested. 



" These sea-lions, when they took to the water, swam out t» 

 a distance of fifty yards or so, and huddled all up together in 

 two or three ijacks or squads of about five hundred each, hold- 

 ing their heads and necks up high out of water, all roaring in 

 concert and incessantly, making such a deafening noise that 

 we could scarcely hear ourselves in conversation at a distance 

 from them of over a hundred yards. This roaring of sea-lions, 

 thus disturbed, can only be compared to the hoarse sound of a 

 tempest as it howls through the rigging of a ship, or the play- 

 ing of a living gale upon the bare branches, limbs, and trunks 

 of a forest-grove." They commenced to return as soon as we 

 left the ground. 



The voice of the sea-lion is a deep, grand roar, and does not 

 have the flexibility of the Callorhinus, being confined to a low, 

 muttering growl or this bass roar. The pups are very playful, 

 but are almost always silent. When they do utter sound, it is 

 a sharp, short, querulous growling. 



THE DRIVE OP THE SEA-LIONS ON SAINT PAUL'S ISLAND. 



The natives have a very high appreciation of the sea-lion, or 

 see-vitchie, as they call it, and base this regard upon the supe- 

 rior quality of the flesh, fat, and hide, (for making covers for 



