TEE SEA LION. 135 



taceans, and sea -fowls; always with the addition of a few pebbles or smooth stones, 

 some of which are a pound in weight.* Their principal feathery food, however, is 

 the penguin, in the southern hemisphere, and the gulls in the northern ; while the 

 manner in which they decoy and catch the gaviota of the Mexican and Californian 

 coasts, displays no little degree of cunning. When in pursuit, the animal dives 

 deeply under water and swims some distance from where it disappeared ; then, rising 

 cautiously, it exposes the tip of its nose above the surface, at the same time giving 

 it a rotary motion, like that of a water -bug at play. The unwary bird on the 

 wing, seeing the object near by, alights to catch it, while the Sea Lion, at the 

 same moment, settles beneath the waves, and at one bound, with extended jaws, 

 seizes its screaming prey, and instantly devours it. 



A few years ago great numbers of Sea Lions were taken along the coast of 

 Upper and Lower California, and thousands of barrels of oil obtained. The num- 

 ber of seals slain exclusively for their oil would appear fabulous, when we realize 

 the fact that it requires on an average, throughout the season, the blubber of three 

 or four Sea Lions to produce a barrel of oil. Their thick, coarse-grained skins 

 were not considered worth preparing for market, in a country where manual labor 

 was so highly valued. At the present time, however, they are valuable for glue- 

 stock, and the seal -hunter now realizes more comparative profit from the hides than 

 from the oil. But while the civilized sealers, plying their vocation along the sea- 

 board of California and Mexico, destroy the Leon marino, for the product of its oil, 

 skin, testes, and whiskers, the simple Aleutians of the Alaska region derive from 

 these animals many of their indispensable articles of domestic use. It appears an 



* The enormous quantity of food which •would piece of sturgeon, upon •which fish the animals 



be required to maintain the herd of many thou- are chiefly fed, would be thrown in the water 



sands, which, in former years, annually assem- near by ; and, although it would sink out of 



bled at the small island of Santa Barbara, would sight from the surface, the huge beast would 



seem incredible, if they daily obtained the al- make a bound from the rocks, and diving, would 



lowance given to a male and female Sea Lion, instantly recover it and again return to his ele- 



on exhibition at Woodward's Gardens, San Fran- vated position ; or when a morsel lodged upon 



Cisco, California, where the keeper informed me the rocks, he would seize and devour it in a 



that he fed them regularly, every day, forty moment, and in the same manner as the ani- 



pounds of fresh fish. Since these animals have mal picks up a crab, with his mouth, from the 



taken up their abode in the ponds of the gar- slimy rocks of the ocean, and instantly bolts it. 



dens, the male has become quite expert in The female was fed in the water; and as the 



catching food within his jaws, as it is thrown food was thrown from side to side in the aqua- 



to him or near him, while lying upon a pile of rium, the animal would dart through the ele- 



rocks in the centre of the pond. Sometimes a ment with surprising velocity to receive it. 



