Note 140 — Chapter XI · THE ALASKAN SEA-LION.

The sea-lion and hair-seals of Bering Sea, having no commercial value in the eyes of civilized men, have not been subjects of interest enough to the pioneers of those waters for mention in particular; such record, for instance, as that given of the walrus, the sea-otter, and the fur-seal. Steller was the first to draw the line clearly between them and seals in general, especially defining their separation from the fur-seal; still his description is far from being definite or satisfactory in the light of our present knowledge of the animal.

In the South Pacific and Atlantic the sea-lion has been curiously confounded by many of our earliest writers with the sea-elephant, Macrorhinus leoninus, and its reference is inextricably entangled with the fur-seal at the Falklands, Kerguelen’s Land, and the Crozettes. The proboscidean seal, however, seems to be the only pinniped which visits the Antarctic continent; but that is a mere inference of mine, because so little is known of those ice-bound coasts, and Wilkes, who gives the only record made of the subject, saw no other animal there save that one.