Among these are the large so-called "sea-lions" of Patagonia and the North Pacific. We are familiar with their appearance, because for many years specimens have been kept at the Zoological Gardens. Their habits are much the same as those of the fur-seals. The principal species are, in the north, Steller's Sea-lion, and the Patagonian Sea-lion in the south. Those kept at the Zoological Gardens are usually of the latter species.
Steller's Sea-lion is already on the road to extinction. When the annual catch of fur-seals reached 100,000 a year, the total number of these northern sea-lions was estimated at between 30,000 and 40,000. They repair every year to the Pribyloff Islands to breed, as the fur-seals do, but are shier and more entirely aquatic. The fur of the old males is tawny, and makes a kind of mane over the shoulders, whence its name. Off San Francisco there is a small rocky island, one of the ancient "rookeries" of these sea-lions, where they are carefully preserved by the United States Government as one of the sights of the bay. Another favourite haunt in old days was on the Farralone Islands, thirty miles from the bay.
By permission of Professor Bumpus] [New York.
SEA-LION.
All sea-lions are polygamous. The males guard their harems very jealously, and fight determinedly with any intruder.
Southwards, towards the Antarctic, on the desolate and uninhabited coasts and islets of the Far Southern Ocean, the most characteristic of the fauna still remaining are the sea-lions. Formerly they swarmed in great packs, crowding at the breeding-season the seaweed-covered rocks with their huge and unwieldy forms, and at other times cruising in uncouth and noisy companies in search of the fishes and squids, which they pursued like packs of ocean-wolves. In spring the sea-lions used to struggle on to the flat shore, where the equally aquatic tribes 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 exploring-ships visited the penguins' nurseries, all the ungainly birds began to hop inland, evidently taking the men for seals, and thinking it best to draw them as far from their native element as possible. But the eared seals can make good progress of a kind on land. When Captain Musgrave and his crew were cast away for twenty months on the Auckland Islands, they found their tracks on the top of a hill four miles from the water. Captain Musgrave also saw the mother seals teaching their puppies to swim; they were by no means inclined to do this, and were afraid of the water—fairly clear presumptive evidence that seals have only recently, so far as natural time is counted, taken to the aquatic life, and modified their form so profoundly as they have.
The Patagonian Sea-lion is perhaps the most numerous species, though its numbers have been greatly reduced by whalers in search of skins and oil. The first sea-lion ever brought to England was one of these. The Zoological Society did not import it; they found it in the possession of a Frenchman called Lecomte, who had taken it on the Patagonian coast, trained it, and brought it home, where he showed it in a caravan. Its training was long and difficult; it bit like a bull-dog, and Lecomte's limbs were scarred all over with its bites. In spite of this it was the cleverest performing animal ever seen up to that time in England. This sea-lion died from swallowing a fish-hook concealed in some fish with which it was fed. Lecomte was then sent out by the Zoological Society to obtain some more. With the greatest difficulty several were secured, but all died on the voyage to New York. Lecomte returned and obtained others, one of which he succeeded in bringing to England. The cleverness of these animals—or rather their power of understanding what they are required to do, and their willingness to do it—probably exceeds that of any other animal, except the elephant and the dog. Why this is so is not easy to conjecture, except that the brain is more developed. They have been taught to fetch and carry on dry land like a retriever, in addition to the well-known tricks exhibited by those at the Zoo. One belonging to Barnum's Show caught strawberry-punnets on its nose when they were thrown to it, and waved a torch, which it held in its teeth and caught after tossing it into the air.
The sea-lions are much more powerful animals than the fur-seals. The male of Steller's sea-lion attains a length of 10 feet and a weight of 1,000 lbs. The Australian Sea-lion is even larger than that of the North Pacific. Some specimens are said to attain 12 feet in length. Captain Cook mentions seeing male Patagonian sea-lions 14 feet long and from 8 to 10 feet in circumference. Though none are now seen of such dimensions, skulls found on the beach show that anciently some of the sea-lions were larger than any now known.
