ALASKA. INDUSTRIES. 107 



whale or tlie saw-tipped teeth of the Japan shark. As they sleep in 

 the water off the Straits of Fiica and the northwest coast as far as 

 Dixon's Sound, the Indians belonging to that region surprise them 

 with spears and rifle, capturing quite a number every year, ghiefly 

 pups and yearlings. 



Encysted bullets, arkows, etc., in fur seals. — On the killing 

 grounds at St. George, in June, 1873, the natives would frequently call 

 my attention to seals that they were skinning, in the hides of which 

 buckshot were embedded and encysted just under the skin in the 

 blubber. From one animal I picked out fifteen shot, and the holes 

 which the}^ must have made in the skin were so entirely liepJed over 

 as not to leave the faintest trace of a scar. These buckshot v. ere 

 undoubtedly received from the natives of the northwest coast, anj- 

 where between the Straits of Fuca and the Aleutian Islands. The 

 number taken by these hunters on the high seas is, however, incon- 

 siderable ; the annual average, perhaps, of 5,000 skins is a fair figure — 

 some seasons more, some seasons less. The natives also have found 

 on the killing grounds, in the manner just indicated, specimens of the 

 implements employed bj^ the Aleuts to the southward, such as tips of 

 l)irds' spears and bone lances, comfortabl}^' encysted in the blubber 

 under the skin; but only very small fragments are found, because I 

 believe any larger pieces would create suppuration and slough out of 

 the wounds.^ 



and utters only a sliort, stifled growl of surprise, perhaps: its mobility, however, 

 of vocalization is sadly deficient when compared with the scope and compass of its 

 valuable relative's polyglottis. 



The hair seals (Phoca vitulina) around these islands never approached our boats 

 in this manner, and I seldom caught more than a furtive glimpse of their short, 

 bulldog heads when traversing the coast by water. 



The walrus (Rosmarus obesus) also, like Phoca vitulina, gave undoubted evi- 

 dence of sore alarm over the presence of my boat and crew anywhere near its 

 proximity in similar situations, only showing itself once or twice, perhaps at a safe 

 distance, by elevating nothing biit the extreme tip of its muzzle and its bleared, 

 popping eyes above the water: it uttered no sound except a dull, mufQed grunt, or 

 else a choking, gurgling bellow. 



'Touching this matter of the approximate numbers of fur seals which are 

 annually slain in the open sea, straits, and estuaries of Bering Sea and the North 

 Pacific Ocean, I have, necessarily, no definite data upon which to base a calcula- 

 tion: but such as I have points to the capture every year of 1,000 to 1,400 young 

 fur seals in the waters of Unimak Pass, and as many in the straits adjoining 

 Borka village, by the resident Aleuts. These are the only two points throughout 

 the entire Aleutian chain and the peninsula where any CaUoyhinii.'^ is taken l)y the 

 natives, except an odd example now and then elsewhere. On the northwest coast, 

 between San Francisco and Prince William Sound, the fur seal is only apprehended 

 to any extent at two points, viz, off the Straits of Fuca. 10 to '30 miles at sea, 

 sweepnig over a series of large fishing shoals which are located there, and in that 

 reach of water between Queen Charlotte Island and the mouth of Dixon Sound. 

 Several small schooners with native crews, and the Indians themselves in their 

 own canoes, cruise for them here during May and June of each year. How many 

 they secure every season is merely a matter of estimation and therefore not a sub- 

 ject of definite announcement. In my judgment, after carefully investigating the 

 question at Victoria and Port Townsend in 1874, I believe as an average that 

 these pelagic fur sealers do not altogether secure 5,000 animals annually. Those 

 seals killed by the Aleuts of Makushin and Borka settlements, above referred to, 

 are all pups and are used at home, none being exported for trade. 



The last record which I can find of fur seals being taken on land other than that 

 of the Pribilof group of the American side, is the following brief table of Tech- 

 mainov, who. in 1863, published (in two volumes) a long recapitulation of the 

 Russian-American Company's labors in Alaska, as illustrated by a voluminous 

 series of personal letters by the several agents of that company. Techmainov 



