338 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



other quarters. The Russians established a fur company on these 

 islands immediately after they were discovered, which slaugh- 

 tered the animals recklessly for thirty years, without any regard 

 to the danger of exterminating them. They began to diminish 

 visibly about 1817, and in 1836 appeared in only one tenth of their 

 former numbers. Regulations were then adopted to limit the 

 slaughter, which have been accepted and enforced by the United 

 States since the islands came into our possession. Only the young 

 males or " bachelors " are allowed to be killed, during June, July, 

 September, and October, and not more than one hundred thousand 

 of them in each year. The " rookeries " must not be molested. 

 The young seals are started from their haunts near the rookeries 

 and driven over the country to the place of slaughter, which is 

 fixed at such a distance as to obviate the danger of the older ani- 

 mals being alarmed by the disturbance or troubled by the odors 

 of the slaughter. The driving is a very tedious process, and is 

 hard upon the seals, for they become heated very easily, when 

 the fur is spoiled, or get exhausted and die on the road. Four 

 per cent of the flock are sometimes lost in this way. The seals 

 are allowed to rest and cool after reaching the killing-ground, 

 and are then dispatched in droves of about one hundred at a time. 

 Only the fittest are slaughtered, all the others being allowed to 

 go back to the sea. One blow on the head with a club of hard 

 wood is generally sufiicient to kill. A knife is then thrust into 

 the vitals, and the carcass is laid aside till about a thousand have 

 been collected, when the process of skinning begins. The skins 

 are sent home salted, to be cured and converted into what is called 

 " seal-skin." " It is diflicult," says Mr. Clark, " to conceive how 

 that beautiful article of dress can ever be manufactured out of 

 the very unattractive object the skin presents at this juncture. 

 It is hard and unyielding as a board, and the stift', coarse hairs 

 cover the fur so completely that its very existence might be un- 

 suspected." The important point is to separate these hairs from 

 the fur. They used to be pulled out one by one, till it was found 

 that the roots of the hair were more deeply seated than those 

 of the fur, when a cheaper and more expeditious process was 

 adopted. The skins are now pared down on the wrong side till 

 the roots of the hairs are cut off, when they are easily brushed 

 away, and the fur, of varying shades of light-brown, is left in lit- 

 tle curls. The curls become untwisted in the dyeing, and the fur 

 assumes its well-known smooth appearance. 



The seal colonies of the Pribylov Islands were leased by the 

 Government of the United States in 1870 for twenty years to the 

 " Alaska Commercial Company," for an annual rent of fifty thou- 

 sand dollars, and a tax on each skin taken. The details of the 

 slaughter are carefully regulated, so as to promote the well-being 



