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Updated: May 16, 2025
Cathartes jota. Closely allied to the "turkey-buzzard" of the United States. Otaria Falklandica. There are several distinct species of "otary," or "fur-seal"; those of the Falkland Islands and Tierra del Fuego being different from the fur-seals of northern latitudes.
A weird, fear-inspiring procession it is, as they go floundering past, crowding one another, snapping, snorting, and barking, like so many mastiffs! Fortunately for the spectators, the creatures are fur-seals, and not the fierce sea-lions; for the fur-seal is inoffensive, and shows fight only when forced to it.
In the waters of Maldonado Bay a variety of fishes abound, and fur-seals in their season haul out on the island abreast the bay to breed. Currents on this coast are greatly affected by the prevailing winds, and a tidal wave higher than that ordinarily produced by the moon is sent up the whole shore of Uruguay before a southwest gale, or lowered by a northeaster, as may happen.
Seagriff, still vigorous for he has not much passed manhood's prime and unhampered, reaches the head of the gorge long before the others. But as soon as his eyes are above it, and he has a view of the summit level, he sees there something to astonish him: the whole surface, nearly an acre in extent, is covered with fur-seals, lying close together like pigs in a stye.
Daggett was never happier than when listening to some account of the manner in which an old elephant or lion had been taken, or a number of fur-seals had been made to pay their tribute to the enterprise and address of his people.
To his olfactories it is the perfume of Araby. "Them fur-seals hev been up hyar," he says, glancing up the gorge. "They kin climb like cats, spite o' thar lubberly look, and they delight in baskin' on high ground. I've know'd 'em to go up a hill steeper an' higher 'n this. They've made it as smooth as ice, and we'll hev to hold on keerfully.
"Them 'ere both of 'em," nodding first toward the fur-seals and then toward the penguins. "If the Feweegins dar' fetch thar craft so fur out seaward, neither o' them ud be so plentiful nor yit so tame. Both sort o' critters air jest what they sets most store by yieldin' 'em not only thar vittels, but sech scant kiver as they're 'customed to w'ar.
The very day that succeeded the vessel's arrival, not only was great progress made in the preliminary arrangements, but a goodly number of fur-seals, of excellent quality, were actually killed and secured. Two noble sea-elephants were also lanced, animals that measured near thirty feet in length, each of which yielded a very ample return for the risk and trouble of taking it, in oil.
A few days ago a party of five sealers returned to the settlement after a short absence, with the skins of no less than 120 fur-seals, worth, I was told, twenty-five shillings each. It has been variously considered as being one of the galinaceous birds, the pigeons, the waders, and even as belonging to the web-footed order.
Ransom said she remembered seeing one that was kept for years in a salt-water tank, and that, although they seem so clumsy, this sea-lion jumped so quick that he caught a fish thrown to him before it touched the water. Once fur-seals were in great numbers off our coast, and lived on the rocks as these sea-lions now do.
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