SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 117 
although it may possibly sometimes feed near the surface. The writer 
does not maintain that seals can go to the bottom in 100 fathoms, but 
he does believe that they can dive much deeper thanis generally supposed. 
All the hunters on this day reported seals plentiful, but could find 
very few asleep. Had the sun been shining it is safe to say that the 
majority of those with food in their stomachs would have slept during 
the greater part of the day, for as a rule seals with full stomachs sleep 
when the sun is out, the air warm, and the sea smooth, or comparatively 
so. Their time of sleeping, however, is not always when conditions are 
favorable, for after a gale of long duration they are frequently seen 
asleep when the air is cold and the sea uncommonly high, at such times 
being completely exhausted. It is not an infrequent sight during the 
winter and spring months, at the end of a long and heavy gale, to see 
seals sleeping soundly in a snow storm, the exposed portion of their 
body being covered with snow. In consequence of the seals being rest- 
less on this day, a great many of the 34 taken were what is known to 
sealers as “ finners,” that is, about half asleep, rolling about and scratch- 
ing themselves. Sometimes “ finners” are hard to approach, and at 
other times very easy. A restless one will try very hard to take a nap, 
but just as he gets comfortably fixed something disturbs him, and holding 
his head up he will take a look all around as if danger were scented. 
They are then difficult to spear. 
Indians seldom pay any attention to moving seals when hunting with 
spears; they think it a waste of time. White hunters, when they can 
find no sleeping seals, frequently give chase to “ finners” and ‘ travel- 
ers,” and in many cases are rewarded for their trouble. The hunters 
on the Olsen soon found that few seals could be taken on certain days 
if they only selected sleeping ones. Many haphazard throws were made 
at Swimming and finning seals, the majority of which were failures, but 
enough good shots were made to make the experiment a paying one. 
For several days seals had been observed chasing some kind of fish, 
and during this last day’s hunt they were quite plentiful. Only a 
single individual would be seen; it would dart first in one direction 
and then in another, and occasionally would make a desperate leap 
out of the water. Presently a seal would be noticed not far off swim- 
ming as rapidly and in as many different directions as the fish. On 
the day in question 2 seals were speared just as they came to the 
surface, each with one of these fish in its mouth. The seals did not 
relinquish their hold when speared, but kept a firm grip until knocked 
on the head. The fish proved to be Alaskan pollock. Both of the 
seals were large males, one probably between 8 and 10 years old. 
The two following days, August 8 and 9, the weather was too boister- 
ous for sealing; wind southeast and every indication of a gale. We lay 
to under the foresail in order to keep as near our position as possible. 
A heavy sea set in from the westward, but the wind did not increase 
above a strong breeze. Scattering seals were about each day, all trav- 
eling to the westward. From observation we learned that during 
stormy weather seals traveled in an opposite direction to the wind. In 
a gale they are far more numerous on the lee side of the Pribilof 
Islands than to the windward of them. When the wind is heavy and 
the sea rough seals as a rule travel from the seal islands directly to 
leeward or nearly so. Just how much the wind changes the course of 
the main body of seals would be hard to say, but so far as our investi- 
gations extended, in connection with the traveling herd which came 
under our notice, we are inclined to think that seals within 100 miles 
of the seal islands bound to the feeding grounds will, in most cases, 
