108 MAMMALS

ringed seal, the largest the sea-elephant, which haunts
the southern seas. Many are the interesting stories
of the chase of the morunga. During the infancy of
the family the males form a cordon round the mothers
and their children, and keep them from entering the
water until the cubs are of sufficient age to brave its
perils. The male sea-elephant is a magnificent fellow,
over thirty feet in length, and when the hunters come
down upon a group he is always killed last, for the
instant he falls his wives and children disperse, while
as long as he lives they cluster round him, till not
one remains unshot. From Kamtschatka comes the
noisy sea-lion, so called from its curious mane ; and
in the same neighbourhood we get the sea-leopard,
and the sea-bear whose larger and better-developed
limbs enable him to stand and walk on shore, and
who maps the ocean beach into little kingdoms, one
for each family, to cross the boundaries of which
means a deadly fight between the petty kings. Sea-
bears are by no means despicable enemies. A case
is on record where a man was besieged by one on a
rock for six hours. Like the sea-elephants, they are
very careful of their cubs, and should a mother
accidentally hurt the baby, she is loudly remonstrated
with by her indignant spouse. But the most im-
portant of the hair seals, in a commercial sense, are
the harp seal and the common seal. To the Green-
lander the seal is invaluable. Its flesh gives him
food; its skin gives him his boats, his clothes, and
this shoes; its bones give him his implements ; its
entrails give him his window-panes ; its bristles give
him his ornaments. The chase of the harp seal has