138 



The Living Animals of the World 



^'4' ^ilte' '*»>!i£;„^«|;. 



outer fui- is long and coarse, and only the inner fur 

 of the exquisite texture of the "made" skin. The 

 lormer is removed, and the latter dyed to the rich 

 brown colour which we see. The fur-seals are steadily 

 dimini'^hing, and each year's catch is smaller than 

 that of the year before. 



The Cape Fur-seal, Southern Fur-seal, and "Sew 

 Zealand Fur-seal are practically extinct for com- 

 mercial purjioses. 



The Hair-seals. 



Among these are the large so-called "sea-lions" 

 of Patagonia and tlie North Pacific. We are familiar 

 with their a])}iearance, because for many years 

 specimens hax'e been kept at the Zoological Gardens. 

 Their haliits are )nuch the same as those of the fur- 

 seals. The jin'ncipal species are, in the noith. 

 Steller's Sea-liun, and the Patauonian Sea-lion in 

 the south. Those kept at the Zoological Gardens 

 are usuallv of the latter species. 



Steller's Sea-lion is already on tlie road to 

 extinction. A\'heii the annual catch of fur-seals 

 reached 100,000 a year, th(^ total nundier of 

 these northern sea-lions was estimated at between 

 30,000 and 40,000. They re[iair every year to 

 the Pribvloff Islands to breed, as the fur-seals do. 

 hut are shier and more entirely aquatic. The fur 

 of tlie old males is tawny, and makes a kind 

 of mane over the shoulders, whence its name. 

 Off San PVaneisco there is a small rocky island, 

 one of the ancient " rookeries " of these sea-lions, 

 the United States Government as one of the sights 

 of the bay. Another fa\'ourite haunt in old days was on the Farralone Islands, thirty miles 

 li<im the bay. 



Southwards, towards the Antarctic, on the desolate and urnnhaliited coasts and islets f)f 

 the Far Soutliern Ocean, the most characteristic of the fauna still remaining are the sea-lions. 

 Formerly they swarmed in great packs, o'owding at tlie breeding-season the seaweed-co\ered 

 rocks with their huge and unwieldy forms, and at other times cruising in uncouth and noisy 

 companies in search of the fishes and sipiids, wdiich they pursued like packs of ocean -wolves, 

 [n spring the sea-lions used to struggle on to the flat shore, where the equally aquatic 

 triltes of penguins, which had lost the use of their wings, covered acre after acre of rock with 

 their eggs and young. These the sea-lions devoured. When the men of the first e.xploring- 

 shi[is visited the penguins' nurseries, all the ungainly birds began to hop inland, evidentlv 

 taking the men for seals, and thinking it l)est to draw them as far from their native element 

 as possible. Put the eared seals can make good progress of a kind on land. When Ca})taiu 

 Musgrave and his ci-ew were cast away for twenty months on the Auckland Islands, thev 

 found their tracks on the top of a hill four miles from the water. Gaptain ]\lusgrave also 

 saw tlie mother seals teaching their pu]ipies to swim ; they were bv no means inclined to 

 do this, and were afraid of the water — fairly clear presuin[itive evidence that seals have onlv 

 recently, so far as natural time is counted, taken to the aquatic life, and modified their form 

 so profoundly as they ha\e. 



The Patagomax Sea-lion is perha]is the most nunu'rous species, though its nuud.)ers 



Jill pi, 



SE.\-LIO.\. 

 All 3e;i-lions .are pu]yi,';iiiiim..;. The males gnarj tlieii 

 li.Tieliib very jealously, ami fi{,'lit deternilDedly with all} 

 intruder. 



where they are carefully preserved 



hv 



