126 ALASKA INDUSTEIES. 



structure, so built as to afford oue-third of its width in the center, 

 from end to end, clear and open as a passage way ; while on each side 

 are rows of stanchions, with sliding planks, which are taken down and 

 put up in the fonn of deep bins, or boxes — "kenches," the sealers call 

 them. As the pile of skins is laid at the bottom of an emptj' " kench," 

 and salt thrown in on the outer edges, these planks are also put in 

 place, so that the salt may be kept intact until the bin is filled as high 

 up as a man can toss the skins. After lying two or three weeks in 

 this style they become "jiickled," and they are suited then at any 

 time to be taken up and rolled into bundles of two skins to the pack- 

 age, with the hairy side out, tightly corded, ready for shipment from 

 the islands. 



Average weight of raw skins. — The average weight of a 2-year- 

 old skin is 54- pounds; of a S-j^ear-old skin, 7 pounds, and of a 4-3^ear- 

 old skin, 12 pounds; so that as the major portion of the catch is 2 or 

 3 year olds, these bundles of two skins each have an average weight 

 of from 12 to 15 pounds. In this shape they go into the hold of the 

 company's steamer at St. Paul,^ and are counted out from it in San 

 Francisco. Then they are either at once shipped to London by the 

 Isthmus of Panama in the same shape, only packed up in large hogs- 

 heads of from 20 to 40 bundles to the package, or expressed by railroad, 

 via New York, to the same destination. 



Packing skins for shipment. — The work of bundling the skins is 

 not usually commenced by the natives until the close of the last 

 week's sealing; or, in other words, those skins which they first took, 

 three weeks ago, are now so pickled by the salt in which they have 



Commercial Company have brought up three or four horses to St. Paul , but they 

 have been unfortunate in loshig them all soon after landing, the voyage and the 

 climate combined being inimical to equine health; but the mules of the present 

 order of affairs have been successful in their transportation to and residence on 

 the Pribilof Islands. One. the first of these horses just referred to, perhaps did 

 not have a fair chance for its life. It was saddled one morning, and several camp 

 kettles, coffee iDOts, etc. , slung on the crupper for the use of the Russian agent, 

 who was going up to Northeast Point for a week or ten days' visit. He got into 

 the saddle, and while en route, near Polavina. a kettle or pot broke loose behind, 

 the alarmed horse kicked its rider prom^jtly off, and disajipeared on a full run in 

 the fog, going toward the bogs of Kamminista;, where its lifeless and fox-gnawed 

 body was found several days afterwards. 



' The shallow depths of Bering Sea give rise to a very bad surf, and though none 

 of the natives can swim, as far as I could learn, yet theyare quite creditable surf- 

 men, and work the heavy " baidar,"' in and out from the landing adroitly and cir- 

 cumspectly. They put a sentinel upon the bluffs over Nah Speel, and go and 

 come between the rollers as he signals. They are not graceful oarsmen under any 

 circumstances, but can pull heartily and coolly together when in a pinch. The 

 apparent ease and unconcern with which they handled their bidarrah here in the 

 "bai-oon" during the fall of 1S69, so emboldened three or four sailors of the 

 United States revenue marine cutter Lincoln that they lost their lives in that 

 surf through sheer carelessness. The " gig " in which they were coming ashore 

 ''broached to" in the breakers just outside of the cove, and their lifeless forms 

 were soon after thrown up by the merciless waves on the Lagoon rookery. Three 

 graves of these men are plainly marked on the slope of the Black Bluffs. 



There is a false air of listlessness and gentleness about an oi^en sea, or roadstead 

 roller, that is very apt to deceive even watermen of good understanding. The 

 crushing, overwhelming power with which an ordinary breaker will hurl a large 

 ship's boat on rocks awash must be personally experienced ere it is half 

 appreciated. 



The bundled skins are carried from the salt houses to the baidar, when the order 

 for shipment is given, and pitched into that lighter one by one, to be rapidly 

 stowed: 700 to 1,200 bundles make the average single load; then, when alongside 

 the steamer, they are again tossed up and on her deck, from whence they are 

 stowed in the hold. 



