8 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



17. Cows, when nursing, regularly travel long distances to feed. They are fre- 

 quently found 100 or 150 miles from the islands, and Bometimes at greater distances 



18. The food of the fur seal consists of fish, squids, crustaceans, and probably other 

 forms of marine life. 



19. The groat majority of cows, pups, and such of the breeding bulls as have not 

 already gone, leave the islands about the middle of November, the date varying con- 

 siderably with the season. 



20. Part of the nonbreeding male seals (holluschickie), together with a few old 

 bulls, remain until January, and in rare instances until February, or even later. 



21. The fur seal as a species is present at the Pribilof Islands eight or nine months 

 of the year, or from two-thirds to three-fourths of the time, and in mild winters 

 sometimes during the entire year. The breeding bulls arrive earliest and remain 

 continuously on the islands about four months. The breeding cows remain about 

 six months, and part of the nonbreeding male seals about eight or nine months, and 

 sometimes throughout the entire year. 



22. During the northward migration, as has been stated, the last of the body or 

 herd of fur seals leave the North Pacific and enter Bering Sea in the latter part of 

 June. A few scattered individuals, however, are seen during the summer at various 

 points along the northwest coast. These are probably seals that were so badly 

 wounded by pelagic scalers that they could not travel with the rest of the herd to 

 the Pribilof Islands. It has been alleged that young fur seals have been found in 

 early summer on several occasions along the coast of British Columbia and south- 

 eastern Alaska. While no authentic case of the kind has come to our notice, it would 

 ^e expected from the large number of cows that are wounded each winter and spring 

 along these coasts and are thereby rendered unable to reach the breeding rookeries, 

 and must perforce give birth to their young (perhaps prematurely) wherever they 

 may be at the time. 



23. The reason the northern fur seal inhabits the Pribilof Islands to the exclusion 

 of all other islands and coasts is that it here finds the climatic and physical condi- 

 tions necessary to its life wants. This species requires a uniformly low temperature 

 and overcast sky and a foggy atmosphere to prevent the sun's rays from injuring it 

 during the long summer season when it remains upon the rookeries. It requires 

 also rocky beaches on which to bring forth its young. No islands to the northward 

 or southward of the Pribilof Islands, with the possible exception of limited areas 

 on the Aleutian chain, are known to possess the requisite combination of climate 

 and physical conditions. 



All statements to the effect that fur seals of this species formerly bred on the 

 coasts and islands of California and Mexico are erroneous, the seals remaining there 

 belonging to widely different species. 



DRIVING AND KILLING, 



When the first young males, or baclielors, arrive at the islands in 

 May, a drive is made for food for the natives, who are hungry for fresh 

 meat, not having tasted any since the preceding November. 



All of the driving is done under the immediate and exclusive direc- 

 tions of the native chief, who is the most experienced and. most trust- 

 worthy man on the island. 



Should the seals happen to lie near the water, it will be necessary to 

 wait till the tide runs out before disturbing them. At the proper time 

 a dozen men are on the ground, and silently and swiftly running in 

 single file along the beach they form a line between the seals and the 

 sea; and then the startled animals will immediately start inland, where 

 they are slowly followed by the men, until they are too far from the beach 

 to escai)e to tlie water, when they are put in charge of three or four of the 

 men, who bring them along slowly to the killing grounds, which is never 

 less than half a mile away from the nearest breeding seals. No other 

 part of the work done in taking seal skins is more carefully performed 

 than the driving of seals; they are never driven at a pace greater than 

 about one mile in three hours, and most of the driving is done during 

 the niglit, so as to take advantage of the dew and moisture, and to avoid 

 the sudden appearance of the sun, which is always more or less injuri- 

 ous to seal life on a drive. The stories told by interested men about 

 careless and reckless driving are not true, and, for obvious reasons, 



