118 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



Prostration of fur seals by heat. — This prostration from 

 exertion will always happen, no matter how carefully the}' are driven; 

 and in the longer drives, such as 2^ and 5 miles, from Zapadnie on the 

 west or Polavina on the north to the village at St. Paul, as much as 

 3 or 4 per cent of the whole drive will tlius be dropped on the road; 

 hence I feel satisfied, from my observation and close attention to tliis 

 feature, that a considerable number of those that are thus rejected 

 from the drove and are able to rally and return to the water die sub- 

 sequently from internal injuries sustained on the trip, superinduced 

 by this overexertion. I therefore think it highly improper and 

 impolitic to extend drives of the "hoiluschickie" over any distance 

 on St. Paul Island exceeding a mile or a mile and a half. It is better 

 for all parties concerned, and the business too, that salt houses be 

 erected and killing grounds established contiguous to all of the great 

 hauling grounds, 2 miles distant from the village on St. Paul Island, 

 should the business ever be developed above the present limit or 

 should the exigencies of the future require a quota from all these 

 places, in order to make up the 100,000 which may be laAvf ully taken. 



Abundant supply of " holluschickie." — As matters are to-day, 

 100,000 seals alone on St. Paul can be taken and skinned in less than 

 forty working days within a radius of 1^ miles from the village and 

 from the salt house at Northeast Point; hence the driving, with the 

 exception of two experimental droves which I witnessed in 1872, has 

 never been made from longer distances than Tolstoi to the eastward, 

 Lukannon to the northward, and Zoltoi to the southward, of the kill- 

 ing gi'ounds at St. Paul village. Should, however, an abnormal sea- 

 son recur, in which the larger proportion of days during the right 

 period fortakingtheskins.be warmish and dry, it might be necessary, 

 in order to get even 75,000'Seals ^vithin the twenty-eight or thirty daj^s 

 of their prime condition, for drives to be made from the other great 

 hauling grounds to the westward and northward, which are now, and 

 have been for the last ten years, entirely unnoticed b}' the sealers. 



Killing the seals. — The seals, when finally driven up on those 

 flats between the east landing and the village, and almost under the 

 windows of the dwellings, are hei'ded there until cool and rested. The 

 drives are usually made very early in the morning, at the first break- 

 ing of day, which is half past 1 to 2 o'clock of June and Jul^^ in these 

 latitudes. They arrive and cool off on the slaughtering grounds, so 

 that by 6 or 7 o'clock, after breakfast, the able-bodied male popula- 

 tion turn out from the village and go down to engage in the work of 

 slaughter. The meu are dressed in their ordinary working garb of 

 thick flannel shirts, stout cassimere or canvas pants, over which the 

 ' ' tarbossa " boots are drawn. If it rains, they wear th eir ' ' kamlaikas, " 

 made of the intestines and throats of the sea lion and fur seal. Thus 

 dressed, they are each armed with a club, a stout oaken or hickory 

 bludgeon, which have been made particularly for the j)urpose at New 

 London, Conn., and imported here for this especial service. These 

 sealing clubs are about 5 or 6 feet in length, 3 inches in diameter at 

 their heads, and the thickness of a man's forearm where they are 

 gras>ped by the hands. Each native also has his stabbing knife, his 

 skinning knife, and his whetstone. These are laid upon the grass con- 

 venient when the work of braining or knocking the seals down is in 

 progress. This is all the apparatus which they have for killing and 

 skinning. 



The killing gang at work. — When the men gather for work 

 they are under the control of their chosen foremen or chiefs; usually. 



