146 BEASTS AND MEN 
engaged in feeding this creature. It was one Sunday when 
several hundred spectators had come to watch the animals 
being fed. My father carried over his arm a basket in which 
were contained the fish which he threw as food to his pet. 
When the basket had been half emptied, my father, thinking 
that the sea-lion had had enough, turned round to walk away. 
But the sea-lion was of a very different opinion. No sooner 
had my father shown his intention of leaving, than the great 
beast glided up with lightning speed behind him, and with 
a sudden movement tore off all the clothes from his back. It 
then collared the basket and with great apparent good nature 
proceeded to devour the remainder of the fish. My father 
beat a hasty retirement into the nearest corner, where he stood 
in the only position that was decorous—namely with his back 
to the wall. I had to hurry to fetch some more clothes for 
my father ; and when he reappeared, arrayed in these, he 
was received with loud cheers by the public. This occurrence 
must not be attributed to any uncertainty of temper in the sea- 
lion, but to my father’s error in taking into the enclosure more 
fish than he intended to give the animal. It felt that it was 
being unjustly treated, and adopted its own method of remedy- 
ing its grievance. So far from showing ill temper, the inci- 
dent shows intelligence in the animal—an intelligence which, 
whether they be lions or tigers, elephants or seals, is the most 
essential quality for a performing animal to possess. 
