126 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 



fisher knocks him on the head, draws, without ceremony, his 

 skin over his ears, and throws his blubber into the oil-kettle. 



The Otarias, or seals furnished with an external ear, and whose 

 longer and more developed feet allow them to move more freely 

 on land, rank in point of organisation at the head of the whole 

 tribe. The most important and valuable of all is the Sea-Bear 

 (Arotocephalus ursinus), of which there are probably two 

 species ; the one inhabiting the Antarctic seas, while' the other 

 roams about the coasts and islands of the Northern Pacific, and 

 selects St. Paul, one of the Pribilow group in Behring's Sea, as 

 its favourite summer haunt. The fine-haired, black, curly 

 skin of the younger animals, of from four months to one year 

 old, is particularly esteemed, so as to be classed among the finer 

 furs which find a ready sale in the Chinese market, and serve 

 to decorate the persons of the higher rank of mandarins. The 

 chase, which on the latter island was formerly a promiscuous 

 massacre, is now reduced to the slaughter of a limited number 

 of victims. It begins in the latter part of September, on a cold 

 foggy day when the wind blows from the side where the animals 

 are assembled on the rocky shore. The boldest huntsmen, ac- 

 customed to clamber over stones and cliffs, open the way ; then 

 follow their less experienced comrades, and the chief personage 

 of the band comes last, to be the better able to direct and survey 

 the movements of his men, who are all armed with clubs. The 

 main object is to cut off the herd as quickly as possible from 

 the sea. All the grown-up males and females are spared, but 

 the younger animals are all driven landwards, sometimes to the 

 distance of a couple of miles, and then partly clubbed to death. 

 Those which are only four months old are doomed without ex- 

 ception ; while of the others only a certain number of the 

 males are killed, and the females allowed to return again to the 

 coast, when they soon betake themselves to the water. For 

 several days after the massacre, the bereaved mothers swim 

 about the island, seeking and loudly wailing for their young. 



From the 5th of October, St. Paul is gradually deserted by the 

 sea bears, who then migrate to the south, and reappear towards 

 the end of April, — the males arriving first. Each seeks the 

 same spot on the shore which he occupied during the preceding 

 year, and lies down among the large stone blocks with which the 

 flat beach is covered. About the middle of May the far more 



