Note 137 — Chapter XI · THE ALASKAN SEA-LION.

That the sea-lion bull should be so cowardly in the presence of man, yet so ferocious and brave toward one another and other amphibious animals, struck me as a line of singular contrast with the undaunted bearing of a fur-seal “seecatch,” which, though being not half the size or possessing muscular power to anything like its development in the “seevitchie,” nevertheless will unflinchingly face on its station at the rookery any man to the death. The sea-lion bulls certainly fight as savagely and as desperately one with another, as the fur-seal males do. There is no question about that, and their superior strength and size only makes the result more effective in the exhibition of gaping wounds and attendant bloodshed. I have repeatedly seen examples of these old warriors of the sea which were literally scarred from their muzzles to their posteriors so badly and so uniformly as to have fairly lost all the color or general appearance even of hair anywhere on their bodies.