44 ' ^ ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



that employment is given to a fleet of about 60 sailing and steam ves- 

 sels, which annually go forth ^ from St. John, Newfoundland, and else- 

 where, fitted for seal fishing, taking in all their voyages over 300,000 

 of these animals each season; the principal object of value, however, 

 is the oil rendered from them, the skins having very small commercial 

 importance.^ Touching oil, etc., a business digest of this subject, as 

 it refers to the seal islands of Alaska, will be found in this memoir, 

 in that portion descriptive of the methods employed by working the 

 hauling grounds of the ' ' holluschickie. " 



LIFE HISTORY OF THE FUR SEAL. 



Description of an adult male. — The fur seal {Callorhinus ur- 

 sinus) which repairs to these islands to breed and to shed its hair and 

 fur, in numbers that seem almost fabulous, is the highest organized of 

 all the Pinnipedia, and, indeed, for that matter, when land and water 

 are weighed in the account together, there is no other animal known 

 to man which can be truly, as it is, classed superior from a purely 

 physical point of view. Certainly there are few, if any, creatures in 

 the animal kingdom that can be said to exhibit a higher order of 

 instinct, ajiproaching even our intelligence. 



I wish to draw attention to a specimen of the finest of this race — 

 a male in the flush and prime of his first maturity, (3 or 7 years 

 old, and full grown. When it comes up from the sea early in the 

 spring, out to its station for the breeding season, we have an animal 

 before us that Avill measure 6^ to 7^ feet in length from tip of nose to 

 the end of its abbreviated, abortive tail. It will weigh at least 400 

 pounds, and I have seen older specimens much more corpulent, which, 

 in my best judgment, could not be less than 600 pounds in weight. 

 The head of this animal now before us appears to be disproportion- 

 ately small in comparison with the immensely thick neck and shoul- 

 ders, but as we come to examine it we will find it is mostly all occu- 

 pied by the l^rain. The light framework of the skull supports an 

 expressive pair of large bluish-hazel eyes, alternately burning with 

 revengeful, passionate light, then suddenly changing to the tones of 



' Sailing on the lOtlxof March, simultaneously; the Canadian law prohibits earlier 

 work in this respect. 



"An excellent, and as far as I know a correct, description of this seal fishery in 

 the North Atlantic has been published by Michael Carroll, in his Seal and Herring 

 Fisheries of Newfoundland. This gentleman writes in a manner indicative of 

 much familiarit}' with the business, though it is to be regretted that his observa- 

 tions were not more systematized and concentrated. Mr. Carroll, when he pub- 

 lished his work in 1873, had enjoyed a personal experience of over fifty years in the 

 hair-seal hunting of the North Atlantic, and this report is therefore perhaps the 

 best exposition of the habit and condition of those Phocidce that is extant; at least I 

 should judge so. Robert Brown, in 186« (Proc. Zool. Society, London, pp. 413-418) , 

 gives a graphic sketch of the life of the Greenland hair seal, while Ludwig Kum- 

 lein, in Bulletin No. 15 of the United States National Museum, 1879, presents 

 altogether the most interesting and valuable biology of the hair seals in the waters 

 of Cumberland Sound that has as yet been printed. Allen, in his History of the 

 North American Pinnipeds, 1880. has, with painstaking labor, carefiilly compiled 

 the pertinent remarks of a whole armj' of lesser authorities upon the doing and 

 well-being of the Phocicke, and has arranged them in his memoir so that they 

 appear to the best advantage. Carroll's report is exceedingly interesting, and 

 could he be induced to rewrite his notes, systematizing them, or permit some nat- 

 uralist to do so who might draw out from liim information on important points 

 now hidden, the result undoubtedly would accrue greatly to the benefit of all con- 

 cerned, and cause him to reap a fitting recognition of his knowledge of the subject, 

 which seems to be very full and e^ihaustive, as far as expressed by himself. 



