66 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



copulate with tliem in the water. These beaches, occu[)ied by the iuter- 

 luediate ages from 1 to G years old, together with the ievr superauuii- 

 ated ones whose age iiufits them to cope with the beach masters, are 

 called, to distinguish them from the breeding places, the hauling 

 grounds. It is from this class, on these hauling grounds, that the seals 

 are taken for their skins. These seals as they lie on the beaches are 

 surprised by the hunters, cut off from the water, and driven inland in 

 droves to the salt houses, where they are separated into groups of sixty 

 or seventy at a time, and surrounded by the sealers with their clubs. 

 Under the direction of the chief the prime seals are selected and killed 

 and those too young or too old are allowed to go into the water and 

 return to the hauling grounds again. 



These hauling grounds are swept and driven two or three times a 

 week during the mouths of June and July and the prime seals culled 

 out fbr killing, and every seal growing up has to run this gauntlet for 

 his life his second, third, and fourth years before he escapes to grow up 

 as a breeding bull. Thus it will be seen the method of lalliug does 

 not admit of the setting apart of a special number and taking the 

 remainder for the quota for market, and the only possible way to pre- 

 serve the requisite number for breeding purposes is to restrict the num- 

 ber to be killed so far within the product as to insure enough escaping 

 for this object. When the lease was put in practical operation in 1871 

 there was a very large excess of breeding males on hand. Since then 

 this surplus has been diminished by the dying out of the old seals faster 

 than there has been younger seals allowed to escape and grow up to fill 

 their places, until the present stock is insufficient to meet the necessi- 

 ties of the increasing number of breeding females. 



The beach masters leave the island in August and September, and 

 the females with their young from October to January, and do not 

 return until the following July. Of their life while absent from the 

 island we have no definite knowledge. They are frequently reported 

 as being seen by coasting vessels on the coast of British Columbia and 

 eastern Alaska during tlie months of December, January, February, 

 and March, and a few skins are taken by the Indians of that coast, but 

 arc not known to land and haul up on the shores anywhere. The most 

 probable conjecture is that they remain near shoals and banks where 

 fish and food abound during the winter months and gather the neces- 

 sary stores of fat and blubber to sustain them through the summer. 

 From the birth to the time of the seals leaving the islands at 4 months 

 old the loss by death is comparatively small, but during the time they 

 are absent from the island, from December to July, it is very large, only 

 about 40 per cent returning at 1 year old, and this loss is still consider- 

 able the second year; after this they appear to be able to protect tliem- 

 selves, or rather avoid their enemies. What are their enemies is 

 not fully known. In the month of September, about the time the young 

 seals begin to go into the water, a species of small whale, called the 

 "killer," make their appearance in the vicinity of the island in schools 

 of from five to ten, and are seen near the shores apparently chasing the 

 seals, who manifest great fear of them. Three instances have occurred 

 where these killers have got in shoal Avater and have been taken and 

 young seals found in tlieir stomachs. These whales undoubtedly follow 

 the seals to their feeding grounds and prey upon the young during the 

 winter. These large and voracious animals are sufficient to destroy 

 the young seals in great numbers, and their presence fully accounts 

 for this immense loss. 



One other cause should be stated tliat lias directly contributed t^^ 

 diminish the present stock of breeding males. During the season of 



