CHAPTER IV 
THE ORDER OF SEALS AND SEA-LIONS 
PINNIPEDIA 
Some students may feel that it is useless for 
land dwellers to try to become acquainted, at 
long range, with sea animals. Toward many 
sea animals, this feeling is justified; but it 
should not be entertained toward the bold and 
hardy fin-footed children of the surf. The seals 
and sea-lions of our shores are well worth know- 
ing. 
From the warm and luxurious shore of south- 
ern California to Oregon’s storm-beaten Tilla- 
mook Rock, and on up to the inhospitable, rock- 
bound edge of western Alaska, you will find at 
intervals, where Nature has done some of her 
grandest work in shore-building, colonies of bold 
and hardy sea-lions. On the Pribilof Islands 
lives the most valuable of all the fur-bearing 
animals of the world, the fur-“ seal,” which has 
contributed millions of dollars to our national 
treasury, and more than repaid the whole price 
of Alaska. 
On the low shores and adjacent ice floes of the 
North Atlantic live the seal herds that annually 
yield an immense store of valuable oil, and fur- 
nish employment for thousands of Newfoundland 
sailors and sealers. 
The reader may rest assured that even though 
his home be in the centre of the Great Plains, the 
North American seals and sea-lions are well 
worth knowing; for, sooner or later, travel surely 
will bring him into visual contact with many of 
them, either in museums, zoological gardens, or 
alive in their haunts. Let us, then, lay the 
foundation for a profitable acquaintance with 
them. 
By some writers, these animals are classed 
with the Ferae, because they eat flesh; but to 
associate in the same Order such widely different 
creatures as sea-lions and cats seems incongru- 
ous, if not incorrect. 
The Order Pinnipedia 1 contains three groups 
of sea-faring animals, distributed widely through 
the ocean waters of the world, and in some in- 
stances, in fresh water, also. They are the Sea- 
Lions, Seals and Walruses. 
A Sea-Lion has a long, supple neck, and long, 
triangular front flippers that have neither hair 
nor claws, but are simply living paddles. Their 
hind limbs are web-toed flippers. They have 
very small, sharp-pointed ears, carry their heads 
high, and all are lively, active animals, both in 
swimming and in climbing rocks. The males 
of some species grow to enormous size, and have 
faces so lion-like in appearance that this resem- 
blance has given the group its popular name, 
— Sea-Lion. 
A Seal is a short-necked, fat-bodied, low-lying, 
clumsy animal, not nearly so active on land nor 
so intelligent as a Sea-Lion. Its front flippers 
are short, square-ended, fully covered with hair, 
and provided with claws. They have no ex- 
ternal ears of skin and cartilage. Their hair is 
short, close, and stiff, and of no value as fur save 
to the Eskimo, to whom every Seal is a Godsend, 
and utilized in a great variety of ways. 
A Walrus is a sea mammal of great size, 
formed somewhat like a Sea-Lion, and it is the 
clumsiest living creature that ever comes upon 
land. It has two long ivory tusks that grow 
downward from the upper jaw, a very thick 
skin which lies in deep folds, no hair worth men- 
tioning, and a very dull brain. 
The following are the groups and species which 
every American should know : 
1 Pin-ni-pe' di-a means “fin-footed.” 
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