_MARINE CARNIVORA: THE SEALS, SEA-LIONS, AND WALRUS._
There are three families of the Sea Carnivora,--the Fur-seals, or Eared
Seals; the Walrus; and the True or Earless Seals.
[Illustration: _Photo by G. W. Wilson & Co., Ltd._] [_Aberdeen._
STELLER'S SEA-LION.
The eared seal, or sea-lion, has the hind flippers divided, and is thus
able to move with comparative ease on land.]
The first group, which are called EARED SEALS, and occasionally SEA-LIONS
and SEA-BEARS, have a small outer ear, and when on land the hind flippers
are folded forwards beneath the body. There is a distinct neck, and on the
flippers are rudimentary claws. Some of the eared seals have the close and
fine under-fur which makes their capture so remunerative. Under the skin
there is often a thick layer of blubber, which is also turned to commercial
uses by the sealers.
The WALRUS stands by itself. It is a purely Arctic species, whereas
fur-seals are found from Bering Sea to the Antarctic; and forms in some
degree a connecting-link between the eared seals and the true seals. Like
the former, it turns the front flippers forwards and inwards when on land;
but it resembles the true seals in having no external ears. The upper
canine teeth are developed into enormous tusks of hard ivory.
The COMMON SEALS are the most thoroughly aquatic. The hind flippers seem
almost to have coalesced with the tail, and are always directed backwards
in line with it. They have no under-fur. On land they can only use the
front flippers to aid their progress.
Most seals are marine, though some are found in the land-locked sea of Lake
Baikal, in Central Asia, and the true seals often come up rivers.
THE EARED SEALS, OR SEA-LIONS.
These and the walrus have their hind limbs so far free that they can crawl
on land and use their flippers for other purposes than swimming; they can
comb their hair with them, and walk in an awkward way. They are divided
into the fur-seals and hair-seals in the language of trade. The fur-seals
are those from which ladies' seal-skin jackets are made; the hair-seals are
sought for their hides and oil. A demand has sprung up for the latter to
make coats for automobilists to wear when riding at high speed in cold
weather. The "porpoise-hide" boots are really made from the skin of the
hair-seal.
Both hair-seals and fur-seals have in common the remarkable habit of
assembling in large herds during the breeding-season, and of spending a
long period on land after the young are born. The male seals reach the
islands, or "rookeries," first, followed by the females. The latter give
birth to their young almost as soon as they reach the rocks, and are then
seized and gathered into harems by the strongest and oldest males. The
sea-lions of Patagonia, equally with the fur-seals of Bering Sea and the
Pribyloff Islands, never feed during the whole time which they spend on the
rocks, often for a period of two months.
[Illustration: _Photo by G. W. Wilson & Co., Ltd._] [_Aberdeen._
SEA-LION.
This photograph shows the dry mane of the sea-lion, a rather uncommon
sight, as it rarely remains long enough out of the water for its fur to
become absolutely dry.]
THE FUR-SEALS.
The NORTHERN FUR-SEAL is the only member of this group surviving in any
number. These animals still annually resort to the Aleutian Islands, in the
territory of Alaska, in great herds to produce their young, and to certain
other islets off the coast of Japan. This northern fur-seal, from the fur
of which the seal-skin jackets are obtained, is, when full grown, between 6
and 7 feet long. The females are only 4 feet or 4½ feet in length. The
shoulder of the male is grey, the rest of the body varying between reddish
grey and deep black. The female is lighter in colour. Males of this species
are not full grown till six years of age, but breed when four years old.
The females produce young at three years of age. The male seals take
possession of the females almost immediately after reaching the
breeding-grounds, each male collecting as many females as it can round it.
The pups keep with their mothers. This assemblage is surrounded by great
numbers of young male or bachelor seals, which the old males prevent from
annexing any of the females. The greatest of all these gathering-places are
on the Pribyloff Islands and certain other islets in Bering Sea. By the end
of May both male and female seals swim in flocks through Bering Straits,
making for the islands. The islands themselves are leased to American
merchants. But as those seals killed on the way are all just about to bring
forth young, the waste and cruelty of this "pelagic sealing" will be easily
understood. On the islands, or "rookeries," the males, mothers, and pups
remain till August, when the pups take to the water. The male seals have
remained for at least two months, incessantly fighting and watching,
without taking any food. By that time they are quite exhausted, the fat
which they laid up previously being all absorbed. The fur has not naturally
either the colour or texture which art gives it. The outer fur is long and
coarse, and only the inner fur of the exquisite texture of the "made" skin.
The former is removed, and the latter dyed to the rich brown colour which
we see. The fur-seals are steadily diminishing, and each year's catch is
smaller than that of the year before.
The CAPE FUR-SEAL, SOUTHERN FUR-SEAL, and NEW ZEALAND FUR-SEAL are
practically extinct for commercial purposes.
THE HAIR-SEALS.
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.
[Illustration: _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.
[Illustration: _By permission of Herr Carl Hagenbeck_] [_Hamburg._
FEMALE WALRUS.
This is a photograph of the only walrus which has ever been tamed and
taught to perform tricks. It was taken when she was two years old and
weighed 380 lbs. At that time she consumed 70 lbs. of boneless fish a day;
a year later not less than 100 lbs. satisfied her. She is now an inmate of
the Roumanian Zoological Gardens.]
It should be noted that all these creatures are carnivorous, yet the supply
of food for them never seems to fail, as undoubtedly it would were the
animals dependent for their food on land.
THE WALRUS.
The distinguishing features of the walrus have been mentioned in the
introductory remarks to this chapter. It should be added that it has an
external ear-passage, though no external ears, and very thick and bristly
whiskers. It is practically confined to the Arctic Circle, though once its
range extended to the British coasts (where its bones are found in the
Suffolk Crag) and to Virginia. The skull of one was found in the peat at
Ely--evidence that it once ascended rivers.
[Illustration: _By permission of the Hon. Walter Rothschild_] [_Tring._
MALE WALRUS.
The "tusks" of the walrus are put to many practical uses during life, and
after death are much valued for the ivory.]
The walrus stands alone; it is a real monster of the deep. Strange and
awful stories were told of it by some of the early voyagers to the Arctic
Seas; but Captain Cook gave a very different account of his impressions of
the walruses which he saw on the north coast of America: "They lie in herds
of many hundreds on the ice, huddling over one another like swine. (They
lie just like a lot of pigs in a yard.) They roar and bray so very loud,
that in the night, or in foggy weather, they gave us notice of the vicinity
of the ice before we could see it. We never found the whole herd asleep,
some being always on the watch. These, on the approach of the boat, would
awaken those next to them; and the alarm being thus gradually communicated,
the whole herd would awake presently. But they were seldom in a hurry to
get away, till after they had been once fired at; they then would tumble
over one another into the sea in the utmost confusion. They did not appear
to us to be that dangerous animal which authors have described, not even
when attacked. Vast numbers of them would follow us, and come close up to
the boats; but the flash of the musket in the pan, or the bare pointing of
it, would send them down in an instant. The female will defend her young to
the last, and at the expense of her own life, whether in the water or upon
the ice; nor will the young one quit the dam, though she be dead; so that
if one be killed the other is certain prey." The long pendent tusks,
bristly whiskers, small bloodshot eyes, and great size lent colour to the
terrifying tales of the walrus. But more ancient voyagers than Captain Cook
told the truth--that the "morses," as they called them, were harmless
creatures, which often followed the ships from sheer curiosity. They sleep
on the ice like elephantine pigs, and dive and rout on the sea-bottom for
clams, cuttle-fish, and seaweeds. Probably the long tusks are used to rake
up mussels and clams; they also help the walrus to climb on to the ice. A
young walrus was kept for some time by the members of the
Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition, and was found to be an amusing pet. One kept
on board a Dundee whaler used to sleep with an Eskimo dog, and got into the
same kennel with it. It ate blubber and salt pork, but liked the sailors'
pea-soup better than anything else; it was most sociable, and could not
bear to be alone--would tumble down the hatchway to seek the society of its
beloved sailors, and scramble into the cabin if the door were open. When it
fell ill and before it died, it seemed most grateful for any attention
shown to it. The parent walrus shows the greatest courage in trying to
defend the young one. Walruses are now scarce; but as the ivory is the only
part of them of much present value, there is a chance that they may not be
killed off entirely.
THE TRUE SEALS.
The TRUE SEALS, with their greatly modified forms, heads set almost on to
their shoulders, with no neck visible, have well-developed claws on all the
toes, and in the typical species have double-rooted and small cheek-teeth.
The number of the incisors is variable. The GREY SEAL of the North Atlantic
is a large species which visits the North British coasts and the Hebrides.
One old male shot off the coast of Connemara weighed nearly 400 lbs., and
was 8 feet long. It is found off Scandinavia and eastwards to the coast of
Greenland, and breeds off our coasts in October and November. This is the
large seal occasionally shot up Scotch lochs. Its colour is yellowish grey,
varied with blots and patches of dirty black and brown.
THE COMMON SEAL.
This seal is smaller than the preceding. It breeds on parts of the Welsh
and Cornish coasts, and is found on both sides of the Atlantic and in the
North Pacific. It assembles in small herds, and frequents lochs, estuaries,
and river-mouths. In the summer it is fond of following flounders and
sea-trout up rivers. A few years ago one came up the Thames and was shot at
Richmond. The young are born in June, and are greyish white. The adults are
variously mottled with grey, brown, and black. The fondness of seals for
music is proverbial. Macgillivray, the Scotch naturalist, said that in the
Hebrides he could bring half a score of them within forty yards of him by a
few notes on his flute, when they would swim about with their heads above
water like so many black dogs. A seal was captured by the servants of a
landowner near Clew Bay, on the west coast of Ireland, and kept tame for
four years. It became so attached to the house that, after being carried
out to sea three times, it returned on each occasion. The cruel wretches
who owned it then blinded it, out of curiosity to see whether it could find
its way back sightless. The poor animal did so after eight days.
The common seal is still fairly numerous on the rocky western coasts of the
British Islands, though a few old seals, unable to forget their early
habits, appear now and then in Morecambe Bay and in the Solway. It is not
uncommon off the coasts of Caithness and Sutherland. It also frequents a
sandbank in the Dornoch Firth, though it has been much persecuted there.
The common seal is gregarious, while the grey seal usually lives only in
pairs, or at most in small companies. Two or three dozen like to lie
closely packed on shore with all their heads turning seawards. The white
hair of the young seals--which, as already said, are born in June--is shed
in a day or two, when the young take to the water. With regard to their
reputed musical proclivities, some experiments made at the Zoological
Gardens did not bear out this belief; but there is much evidence that in a
state of nature they will approach and listen to music. The common seal has
a large brain-capacity, and is a very intelligent creature. The upper parts
of this seal are yellowish grey, spotted with black and brown, the under
parts being silver-grey.
[Illustration: _By permission of Herr Carl Hagenbeck_] [_Hamburg._
WALRUS AND SEA-LION.
Another photograph of the walrus tamed by Herr Carl Hagenbeck. Notice the
sea-lion in the right-hand corner, which also formed one of the same
performing troupe.]
The HARP-SEAL is an Arctic or ice-seal which sometimes finds its way to
Britain. The young are born on ice-floes. It is found in great herds in
Davis Straits, on the coasts of Greenland, and in the greater part of the
frozen Arctic Ocean. It is the animal which the sealing-vessels which hunt
seals for oil and "hair"--that is, the leather of the skins, not the
fur--seek and destroy. In the old days they could be seen in tens of
thousands blackening square miles of ice. They are still so numerous that
in Danish Greenland more than 30,000 are taken each year. The RINGED SEAL
is a small variety, not more than 3 or 4 feet in length, found in great
numbers in the Far North. Its flesh is the main food of the Eskimo, and its
skin the clothing of the Greenlanders. The seals make breathing-holes in
the ice. There the Eskimo waits with uplifted spear for hours at a time,
until the seal comes up to breathe, when it is harpooned. The BLADDER-NOSED
SEAL is a large spotted variety, with a curious bladder-like crest on the
head and nose of the male. Unlike all other seals, it sometimes resists the
hunters and attacks the Eskimo in their kayaks.
[Illustration: _Photo by York & Son_] [_Notting Hill._
GREY SEAL.
Seals are not so well adapted as sea-lions for getting about on the dry
land, and, except for their habit of coming ashore to bask in the sun, are
thoroughly aquatic.]
If any evidence were needed of the great destruction which the sealing and
whaling industry causes, and has caused, among the large marine animals,
the case of the ELEPHANT-SEALS ought to carry conviction. These are very
large seals, the male of which has a projecting nose like a proboscis. They
were formerly found both north and south of the Equator, their main haunts
being on the coast of California, and on the islands of the South Pacific
and Antarctic Ocean. They are gigantic compared with the common seals, some
of the males being from 16 to 20 feet long. Cuttle-fish and seaweed are the
principal food of this seal, which was formerly seen in astonishing
numbers. The whaling-ships which hunted both these seals and sperm-whales
at the same time almost destroyed those which bred on the more accessible
coasts, just as the earlier whalers entirely destroyed Steller's sea-cow,
and their modern descendants destroyed the southern right-whales. The
elephant-seal is now very scarce, and when one is killed the skin is
regarded as something of a curiosity.
[Illustration: _Photo by J. W. McLellan_] [_Highbury._
GREY SEAL.
Note the difference between the seal's and the sea-lion's hind flippers.
When on land, the seal advances by a jumping movement, produced by the
muscles of the body, assisted forward by the front flippers.]
In the records of the voyage of the _Challenger_ it is stated that there
were still great numbers of the elephant-seals surviving near Heard Island,
and not a few round the shores of Kerguelen Island. Professor Moseley
states that on the windward shore of Heard Island "there is an extensive
beach, called Long Beach. This was covered with thousands of sea-elephants
in the breeding-season; but it is only accessible by land, and then only by
crossing two glaciers. No boat can safely land on this shore; consequently
men are stationed on the beach, and live there in huts. Their duty is
constantly to drive the sea-elephants from this beach into the sea, which
they do with whips made out of the hides of the seals themselves. The
beasts thus ousted swim off, and often 'haul up,' as the term is, upon the
accessible beach beyond. In very stormy weather, when they are driven into
the sea, they are forced to betake themselves to the sheltered side of the
island. Two or three old males, which are called 'beach-masters,' hold a
beach for themselves and cover it with cows, but allow no other males to
haul up. They fight furiously, and one man told me that he had seen an old
male take a young one up in his teeth and throw him over, lifting him in
the air. The males show fight when whipped, and are with great difficulty
driven into the sea. The females give birth to their young soon after their
arrival. The new-born young ones are almost black, unlike the adults, which
are of a light slate-brown. They are suckled by the female for some time,
and then left to themselves, lying on the beach, where they seem to grow
fat without further feeding. They are always allowed by the sealers to lie
like this, 'in order to make more oil.' This account was corroborated by
all the sealers I met, but I do not understand it. Probably the cows visit
their offspring unobserved from time to time. Péron says that both parent
elephant-seals stay with the young without taking any food at all till the
latter are about six or seven weeks' old, and that the old ones conduct the
young to the water and carefully keep them company. The rapid increase in
weight is in accordance with Péron's account. Goodridge gives a somewhat
different story--namely, that after the females leave the young the old
males and the pups proceed inland, as far as two miles sometimes, and stop
without food for more than a month, during which time they lose fat. The
male sea-elephants come ashore for the purpose of breeding about the middle
of August, the females a little later."
Formerly the elephant-seals were found as far north as the Californian
coast, where their capture was the main business of the sealing-traders.
This species also formed the mainstay of the far southern sealers. As the
elephant-seals were killed off, so the business became less and less
profitable. It is to be hoped that the voyages of exploration to the
Antarctic ice-fringe will not lead to the discovery of fresh
sealing-grounds, for if this is the case there is little chance that any of
the southern seals will escape entire destruction. Some form of close time
has already been enforced in the pursuit of the hair-seals of Northern
Europe; but it is very desirable that the species still found on our own
coasts should also receive protection. Except when they paid visits to the
fixed salmon-nets, they never did any harm; and fixed nets are now illegal.
When a seal learned the use of the stake-nets, which these animals were
very quick to understand, it would wait quietly till it saw a fish caught,
and then swim up and carry it off before the fishermen could take it.
Two species--namely, the COMMON SEAL and GREY SEAL--still regularly visit
our shores. The common seal breeds on our south-western coasts, and the
grey seal off the Hebrides. If the common seal were accorded a close time,
its numbers would probably increase; and the spectacle of such interesting
creatures visible on our coast could not fail to be of great interest. All
the old legends of mermaids and wild men of the sea are based on the
capture of seals. Perhaps the most ancient is one which records such a
capture in the river near Orford Castle, in Suffolk, in the reign of Henry
II. The ignorant soldiers were persuaded that it was a man, and tortured it
to make it speak. They then took it to the church, and showed it the sacred
emblems. As it "showed no reverence," they took it back to the castle, and
fed it on fish. It was allowed to go into the river, but returned to its
captors of its own accord. Later it swam away to the sea. The monk who
recorded the story stated his conviction that this seal was an evil spirit
which had got into the body of a drowned sailor. A grey seal was taken not
many years ago in the creek leading up to the little town of Wells, in
Norfolk. It was so tame that the fishermen caught it by throwing coats over
it as it lay on the mud.
[Illustration: _By permission of the Hon. Walter Rothschild_] [_Tring._
HARP-SEAL.
The harp-seal comes from Greenland.]
[Illustration: _By permission of the Hon. Walter Rothschild_] [_Tring._
SEA-ELEPHANT.
These enormous seals (about 20 feet in length) are becoming very scarce.
When they come ashore, they are easily approached, though not so easily
killed. They are much valued for their oil. Note the trunk-like
prolongation of the nose, which, when the animal is excited, becomes
distended.]
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