48 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



of 1872, when I was there, the natives found in their driving of 75,000 

 seals from the different hauling" grounds of St. Paul up to the village 

 killing grounds, two on Novastoshnah rookery, 10 miles north of 

 Lukannon, and two or three from English Bay and Tolstoi rookeries, 

 6 miles west by water; one or two were taken on St. George Island, 36 

 miles to the southeast, and not one from Lukannon was found among 

 those that Avere driven from there ; probably, had all the young males 

 on the two islands this season been examined, the rest of the croppies 

 that had returned from the perils of the deep, whence they sojourned 

 during the winter, would have been distributed quite equally about 

 the Pribilof hauling grounds. Although the natives say that they 

 think the cutting off of the animal's ear gives the water such access 

 to its head as to cause its death, yet I noticed that those examples 

 which we had recognized by this auricular mutilation were normally 

 fat and well developed. Their theory does not appeal to my belief, 

 and it certainly requires confirmation. 



These experiments would tend to prove very cogently and conclu- 

 sively that when the seals approach the islands in the spring they 

 have nothing in their minds but a general instinctive appreciation of 

 the fitness of the land, as a whole ; and no special fondness or deter- 

 mination to select any one particular spot, not even the place of their 

 birth. A study of my map of the distribution of the seal life on St. 

 Paul clearly indicates that the landing of the seals on the respective 

 rookeries is influenced greatly by the direction of the wind at the 

 time of their approach to the islands in the spring and early summer. 

 The prevailing airs, blowing, as they do at that season, from the 

 north and northwest, carry far out to sea the odor of the old rookery 

 flats, together with the fresh scent of the pioneer bulls which have 

 located themselves on these breeding grounds, three or four weeks in 

 advance of their kind. The seals come up from the great North 

 Pacific, and hence it will be seen that the rookeries of the south and 

 southeastern shores of St. Paul Island receive nearly all the seal life, 

 although there are miles of perfectly eligible ground at Nahsaj- vernia, 

 or north shore. To settle this matter beyond all argument, however, 

 I know is an exceedingly difficult task, for the identification of indi- 

 viduals, from one season to another, among the hundreds of thousands, 

 and even millions, that come under the eye on one of these great 

 rookeries is well nigh impossible. 



From the time of the first arrival in May up to the beginning of 

 June, or as late as the middle of that month, if the weather be clear, 

 is an interval in which everj^thing seems quiet. Very few seals are 

 added to the pioneers that have landed, as we have described. By 

 the 1st of June, however, sometimes a little before and never much 

 later, the seal weather — the foggy, humid, oozy damp of summer — 

 sets in; and with it, as the gray banks roll up and shroud the islands, 

 the bull seals swarm from the depths by hundreds and thousands, and 

 locate themselves in advantageous jDOsitions for the reception of the 

 females, which are generally three weeks or a month later than this 

 date in arrival. 



Preemption of the rookeries: Battles of the seals. — The 

 labor of locating and maintaining a position on the rookery is really 

 a terribly serious business for those bulls which come in last; and it 

 is so all the time to those males that occupy the water line of the 

 breeding grounds. A constantly sustained fight between the new- 

 comers and the occupants goes on morning, noon, and night without 

 cessation, frequently resulting in death to one, or even both, of the 

 combatants. 



