  We calculate the baryon octet masses to fourth order in chiral perturbation
theory employing dimensional and cut-off regularization. We analyze the pion
and kaon mass dependences of the baryon masses based on the MILC data. We show
that chiral perturbation theory gives stable chiral extrapolation functions for
pion (kaon) masses below 550 (600) MeV. The pion-nucleon sigma term in SU(3) is
also investigated, we find \sigma_{\pi N} (0) = 50.7 - 53.7 MeV.
