The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-01-07

of British Columbia, says the New York
Press, were torn into kindling wood bya
herd of 1000 angry sea lions, and the sail
ors who manned the boats escaped with
their lives only because of the timely ap-
pearance of a conveying tug.
Though the sea lions fight among them
selves. they do not fight man. The male
population is kept down by the battles OF
the bulls, and the number of his wives is
the test of a bulls success as a gladiator.
A dead bulls harem is always forfeit TO
his conqueror. The young male, or bach
elor, ha to wait until he is old enough TO
whip some sea lion who has a wife before
he can lave one for himself. Therefore
about half of the young males die Wltnout
ever having tasted connubial bliss. The
old and clever fighter, like some sleek old
Mormon bishop who understands the art
of bending the church to his personal ends,
often has a little army OF wives. His repu-
tation as an unconquerable bully goes be-
fore him from rock to rock, like that OF
the veteran swordsman of the kings
musketeers, which went from cafe to cafe
or from town to town in his travels. But
at the sight of a mans figure, neyerthe-
less, he is supposed to run.
After the fishermen had anchored the
Tug SG6fbbQ DaCk W tl6 CdluP W Nd4u uApA
they had finished their days work, when
it would return for them. They baited the
many hooks attached to stout lines with
herring n threw them into the sea, ac-
cording to the approved plan for catching
halibut. Then they saw that the tide was
running stronger than they had thought
and that they we're likely to be carried on
to the rocks which the sea lions regarded
their own, and perhaps have their boats
knocked to pieces, SO Captain Stubs
signaled TO the New England, then about
a mile away. to return to tow them into
better positions. The New England had
barely turned around in compliance when
the captain, CHANGING oceanward, saw an
oncoming sheet of foam and spray as II a
fleet of miniature torpedo boats were ad-
vancing at full speed and his fishing boats
were the enemy's ships. The attention OF
all hands was called to the phenomenon,
and at first no one recognized it. Then
they saw that the returning sea lions were
a<emming the tide with mighty strokes as
ley neared home.
Captain Stubs is not any more excita-
BILE than most of the grim commanders
who have learned how to keep a clear head
and q steady hand from preparing to dodge
ocean liners on the Grand n when
they hear the loot of a foghorn-
He had the only firearm among the 20
men. and he stepped well up into the bow
of his boat, which was a little larger than
the others and had five men in it, and pre-
pared for the worst, with his revolver in
one hand and a big oaken oar in the other.
His crew made ready with their oars and
the long knives which they use in cleaning
fish and in killing the small shark, which
sometimes get on the halibut lines.
The captain estimates that there were
Il. 900 lions in the school. Each weighed as
much as the ordinary fat steer of the west
ern plains, and some twice as much. They
came on in the form of a flying wedge-a
magnificent spectacle. When the men
heard their mingled roar, greater in vol
uIne than that of 4 coo lions of the desert
which they sot up all at once in answer
to the roar of their header, like SO many
college men at a football game-some OF
the captains crew for the moment lost
their ner7e.
The point of the flying wedge was 6
harde4ed old bigamist, the leader of the
whole thousand by right of conquest. He
and his ancestors had enjoyed these rocks
from time immemorial as their rookeries.
His eye flashed with such anger as that OF
the old Mormon bishop returning home
from an e~vangelistic tour mi finding that
each one of his 800 wives had AIKEN unto
herself a husband, who was eating at the
dormitory table and enjoying the bishops
best cigars. He was not OF your e1Iem-
mate sea lions who Chamber about the
rocks in front of coast hotels in California
and entertain the ladies with their roars.
He had been nurtured where the wind and
the tide play tricks which are the night
mare of mariners, where pilots steer steam
ers through narrow streets at night by
Judging distances by the echoing nswer
to short blasts of the whistle from rocky
shores. where swift currents carried SO
many Of the argosies of the Klondike pill
griInage on to reefs.
He was worthy of the region. And he
gave the Yankee captain a fight worthy OF
the region. He might have torun from
the presence of man on land, where his
nippers, SO niinble in the sea-, bore him
on SO slowly and awkwardly, but here
man was in a sea lions element, and, that
was an entirely different thing.
He made straight for Captain jeremiah
Etubbs, as if he realized that Captain Jere-
miah Stubs was the head of the enemy.s
harem, and, therefore, alone worthy OF ms
steel.
A last glance toward the returning tug
before the drove came upon the boats wlbn
D force Of a cataract told the captain That
five minutes must pass in way or an
pther before suceor would be at hand.
Then rearing up before him he saw q Wet
glistening hulk, its furry coat gashed With
the scars of the many wounds which 1t hau
received on hard won fields, and With
49, SIS = - -. "a -. .onsT1vIn nvd