40 THE SEALS AND WALRUSES. 



"The Sea Lion rookery will be fouad to consist of about ten to fifteen cows 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 movement on the part of the mother never made by the Fur Seal, and showiug, in this 

 respect, much more attention to its offspring. 



"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 comparatively small 

 (I can only estimate), not over twenty or twenty-live thousand on Saint Paul and contiguous 

 islets, and not more than seven or eight thousand at Saint George. On Saint Paul Island they 

 occupy a small portion of the breeding ground at Northeast Point, in common with the Gallorhinus, 

 always close to the water, and taking to it at the slightest disturbance or alarm.- 



"The Sea Lion rookery on Saint George Island is the best place upon the Seal Islands for 

 close observation of these animals, and the following note was made upon the occasion of one of 

 my visits (June 15, 1873) : 



" 'At the base of cliffs, over four hundred feet in height, on the east shore of the island, on a 

 beach fifty or sixty feet in width at low water, and not over thirty or forty at flood tide, lies the 

 only Sea Lion rookery on Saint George 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 tweuty- 

 five pounds on an average when born, are of a dark chocolate-brown, with the eye as large as the 

 adult, only being a suffused, watery, gray -blue where the sclerotic coat is well and sharply defined 

 in its maturity. They are about two 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. As these animals lie here under the cliffs, they 

 cannot be approached and driven; 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 1868, and 

 will undoubtedly do so again if not molested. 



"•These Sea Lions, when they took to the water, swam out to a distance of fifty yards or so, 

 and huddled all up together in two or three packs or squads of about five hundred each, holding 

 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 playing 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 Gal- 

 lorhinus, being confined to a low, muttering growl or this bass roar. The pups are very playlul, 

 but are almost always silent. When they do utter sound, it is a sharp, short, querulous growling. 



" The natives have a very high appreciation of the Sea Lion, or see-vitchie, as they call it, and 

 base this regard upon the superior quality of the flesh, fat, and hide (for making covers lor their 

 skin boats, bidarJcies and bidarrahs), sinews, intestines, &c. 



"As I have before said, the Sea Lion seldom hauls back far from the water, generally very 



