HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
83 
elephant, the art may yet be revived. We may 
say, in order to allay the doubts of Sundays 
River settlers, that the Addo Elephants have not 
raided the irrigation settlement, but confine their 
periodical excursions to lone farm lands and spend 
most of their time in unfrequented places. 
SEA LIONS THAT HUNTED U-BOATS 
The "Illustrated London News," April 5th, 
has a series of remarkable photographs taken of 
the training of Sea Lions for the above purpose. 
If the Admiralty had only consulted Natura- 
lists, also well-known trainers of animals, they 
would have been, or should have been informed 
that the experiment would turn out a failure. In 
the same manner as the Sea Lion climbed aboard 
the destroyer so it would be only too pleased to 
mount the submarine and make friends with the 
elusive Hun. The article is well worth reading. 
"In the summer of 1917 the Admiralty hit 
on a novel way of hunting submarines. It was 
simply to employ tame sea-lions .Otaria Gillespie) 
to track them down — the idea being that the sea- 
lion could be taught to distinguish the noise of 
the submarine's propeller and to follow it in the 
hope of getting food. A buoy would be attached 
to the animal, and a trawler would follow the 
buov and drop a depth-charge when the sea-lion 
appeared to have found the submarine. • The sea- 
lion would be released when a U-boat was sus- 
pected to be in the vicinity. To do this, two of 
the animals were purchased, and the experiments 
were first carried out in a lake. Noises were 
made under water on one side, and the animal, on 
jumping in, heard the noise and swam towards it, 
being rewarded when he found it by a feed of fish. 
The noise was made by an electric buzzer under 
water. After a large amount of this practice, 
the animal was able to locate the sound each time. 
The animals were then taken down to Portsmouth, 
and practice was carried out with a real sub- 
marine. The first experiments were carried out 
with the submarine in harbour with the buzzer. 
This was successful. The animal was thrown 
overboard some distance off, swam to the sub- 
marine, and jumped on board for his accustomed 
feed of fish — which he got. This was done several 
times to accustom him to the submarine. 
The next development was, while still in har- 
bour, to do a few revolutions with the propeller, 
sounding the buzzer at the same time — this was 
to accustom the animal to the propeller. This 
also was successful, although the motors had to 
be stopped when he was near. A small, light, 
cigar-shaped float painted red was tied round the 
animal's neck by a long piece of gut. In this 
manner the animal's whereabouts was ascertained 
as he towed it along with him on top of the water. 
A portable cage was then made on the top of a 
steam-boat, and the animals were taken outside. 
The same practice was carried out with the buzzer 
and propellers, only at increased distances. 
The animals were fitted with small wire muz- 
zles to prevent them going on a fishing expedi- 
tion of their own. 
The practice was then carried oue without 
the buzzer, the submarine using her motors only. 
After about a week of this, the animal would dis- 
cover the sound and jump on board. Great diffi- 
culty was experienced owing to passing steamers 
which the animal would hear and chase after. 
The final stage of practice was with the submarine 
diving. This was rather taking a risk with the 
submarine's propeller. The men in the steam- 
boat, as soon as the float was observed near the 
periscope, would signal the fact to the Captain 
of the submarine, who was watching through the 
periscope. The submarine would then stop motors 
and come to the surface. On several occasions 
the animal was on deck "barking" for food even 
before the Captain could open the conning-tower 
hatch. This ended the experiments. The chief 
objections to this method of hunting submarines 
were that the animal would swim after any pass- 
ing noise — such as another ship's propellers — and 
that the floats were very unsatisfactory. It was 
impossible to have a bigger float owing to the 
strain on the animal's neck, and the small float 
was very difficult to see at a distance. The line, 
too, was continually breaking; and for the same 
reasons it was impossible to have a heavier and 
stronger line. Thin wire was tried, but that was 
also unsatisfactory. Also, when the weather was 
warm the animals did not behave so well. 
The two animals were Californian sea-lions 
(Otariai Gillespie), one male and the other female. 
The male w : as found to be much more intelligent 
and teachable than the female. Perhaps the fact 
that he had been a bit longer in captivity and was 
a bit older had something todo with it. We " lost" 
the animals several times, but they always eventu- 
ally returned home on noises being made under 
water." 
PET-BIRDS IN CHINA. 
Bv Pierre Amedee Pichot. 
"From the aesthetic point of view," writes 
P\ craft in the introduction to his " Historv of 
