The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-10-16 00:00:00

WHAT IS A SEA-LION?

"Henry Lee "writes in Land and Water :
Since the recent appearance in the newspapers of an
announcement that two living sea lions have been pur-
chased for the Brighton Aquarium, hundreds of persons
have asked themselves and others, "What is a sea
lion?" If each individual were endowed with skill to
model in plaster or depict on canvas the animal in his
"mind's eye," and were required to exhibit the embodi-
ment of his "horrible imaginings," we should have a col-
lection of competitive designs for a new creation which
would hurl from their proud eminence as public-house
signs the "red lion," the "blue boar," and the
"'green dragon," and supply several supplementary
volumes of startling illustrations to Aldrovandus's
"History of Monsters." The unadorned fact is that
the sea lion is one of the family of the "eared seals,"
the Otariadce, and nearly allied to the "fur seal,"
from whose skin i made the seal skin jacket now
so high in favour of English ladies. It differs
greatly in appearance, structure, and movements from
the common hair seal, Phoca vitulina. An adult male
sea-lion attains to a length of eleven or twelve feet
from the nose to tip of tail (which last, by-the-bye, is not
worth reckoning, as it is only about four inches long), to
a girth of ten or twelve feet, and a weight of I,ooolb.
In its general bearing, the manner in which the head
is set up, and the colour of its coat—varying according
to age and season from ochreous or rufous yellow to
light vandyke brown—it has a certain lion-like aspect,
and when its voice is heard, its deep, grand roar helps
to sustain the comparison. The eye is not round and
full like that of the common seal, which is almost pro-
verbial for its beauty and indication ofigentle intelli-
gence, but shows the white or sclerotic coat and brown
iris, and gives to the countenance an expression of sullen
ferocity in keeping with the bristled, bulldog-like muule
and the formidable teeth. The head is rather small
in proportion to the size of the body, but though the
animal is inferior in intelligence and sagacity to the
fur seal, it has good brain capacity. The female is
less than half the size of the male, more slender in form
and somewhat lighter in colour. But when the sea-
lion has occasion to move on land its movements are
anything but leonine. The silent, stealthy creep, the
graceful walk, the jaunty trot, the agile, bounding
leap and powerful spring of the lion, are wanting It
does not, like the common seal, hop along on its
belly in rapidly successive little jumps of about six
inches each,—a motion which is accompli,,hed by the
quick stretching out of both fore paws simultaneously
and the dragging forward of the body, whilst the hind-
limbs are extended backwards in a parallel line—but
swaying and swinging its long, heavy neck from side
to side with an air of weariness and difficulty, it slowly
and awkwardly steps forward with each of its broad,
curved fore flippers alternately, and though its hind
limbs have a certain freedom of movement, drags along
laboriously the hinder portion of the body, which is
seldom raised much from the ground, pausing occasion-
ally to take breath, and requiring frequent spells of
rest. Its progress through the water is rapid, easy,
and graceful.