156^ ALASKA. 



of fiue, enormously fat, and heavy bulls, some four or five buu- 

 dred in number. 



The natives are compelled to go to tbe nortlieast point of the 

 island for these animals, inasmuch as it is the only place ^yith 

 natural advantages where they can be ai)proached for the pur- 

 pose of capturing' alive. Here they congregate in greatest 

 number, although they can be found, two or three thousand of 

 them, on the southwest point, and as many more on " See- 

 vitchie Cammin" and Otter Island. 



Capturing the sea-lion drive is really the only serious busi- 

 ness these people ou the islands have, and when they set out for 

 the task the picked men only leave the village. At Northeast 

 Point they have a barrabkie, in which they sleep and eat while 

 gathering the drove, the time of getting which depends upon 

 the weather, wind, <S:c. As the squads are captured, night after 

 night, they are driven up close by the barrabkie, where the 

 natives mount constant guard over them, until several hundred 

 animals shall have been secured, and all is ready for the drive 

 down overland to the village. 



The drove is started and conducted in the same general man- 

 ner as that which I have detailed in speaking of the fur-seal, 

 only the sea-lion soon becomes very sullen and unwilling to 

 move, requiring spells of frequent rest. It cannot pick itself 

 up from the ground and shamble off on a loping gallop for a few 

 hundred yards, like the CallorJdmis^ atid is not near so free and 

 agile in its movements on land, or in tte water for that matter, 

 for I have never seen the Uiimctopias leap from the water like 

 a dolphin, or indulge in the thousand and one submarine acro- 

 batic displays made constantly by the fur-seal. 



This ground, over which the sea-lions are driven, is mostly a 

 rolling level, thickly grassed and mossed over, with here and 

 there a fresh-water pond into which the animals plunge with 

 great apparent satisfaction, seeming to cool themselves, and 

 out of which the natives have no trouble in driving them. The 

 distance between the sea-lion pen at Northeast Point and the 

 village is about ten miles, as the sea-lions are driven, and occu- 

 pies over five or six days under the most favorable circum- 

 vStances, such as wet, cold weather; and when a little warmer, 

 or as in July or xVugust, a few seasons ago, they wore some 

 three weeks coming down with a drove, and even then left a 

 hundred or so along on the road. 



After the drove lias been brought into the village on the kill- 



