HOWELL — HABITS OF SEALS 
171 
forth at a distance of a hundred yards from shore and frequently 
leaping entirely out of the water in graceful curves. 
The killer whale (probably Orcinus ater) is not rare in these waters 
and must take considerable toll of the seals. I also suspect the huge 
sharks, locally known as “leopard sharks,’’ of a similar dietary taste. 
It is said that these big fellows, appearing to be at least eighteen feet long 
in some cases, are transient visitors from the south, and spend a week 
or more in the cold waters about the islands in order to free themselves 
of certain parasites. I can answer to the fact that they furnish rare 
sport with the harpoon. 
At occasional spots on the islands, there occur caves which are 
popularly known as blow-holes. The entrances to these are chiefly 
below water, but, at certain stages of the tides, the top of the entrance 
is above water in the trough of a swell, and below at the crest. When 
the latter condition obtains, there is considerable pressure exerted 
upon the air in the cave, and this rushes forth through the wave with 
a booming noise, sending the spray high in the air^ — at one spot of 
which I know, as high as fifty feet when the trades are blowing strong 
and causing large swells. California sea lions delight to enter these 
caves to bark for half an hour at a time, and the resultant racket pro- 
duces some weird accoustic effects. 
The Yaquis, being pearl divers from the Gulf of California,, were 
almost amphibious themselves, and constantly slipped over the sides 
of their cumbersome canoes, dug from a single log, to investigate the 
bottom for signs of spiny lobsters and fish. On two such occasions, 
the men were approached by seals, which exhibited the greatest aston- 
ishment and curiosity at finding such strange creatures in the w^ater. 
The California harbor seal {Phoca richardii geronimensis) is found 
about the islands, but in far smaller numbers than its larger relative, 
and the two genera apparently shun each other. In a shallow, rocky 
cove on the seaward side of the larger middle island of Los Coronados 
group, there is a hauling-out ground where about twenty-five of these 
animals could usually be found, and I spent considerable time in 
their company. A favorite position for them, and one which would 
seem to be the height of discomfort, was on a little pinnacle of rock, 
not over a foot in diameter at the top, and this v/as rarely unoccupied 
except at high tide. A seal would balance on this amidships, with 
every evidence of extreme satisfaction, head hunched in as when 
resting, fore flippers close to his sides, and rear ones extended straight 
out behind. There he would stay until dislodged by a companion or 
