296 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



direction of the company's agents and of their own chiefs. The first 

 operation is that of driving the seals from the liauling to the killing 

 grounds. The latter are near the salt houses, which are built at points 

 most convenient for shipping the skins, and all the killing is done upon 

 them, in order not to disturb the other seals, and to save the labor 

 of carrying the skins. The seals suitable for killing (which are the 

 young males from 2 to 6 years old) are readily collected into droves 

 upon the hunting grounds by getting between them and the water, and 

 are driven as easily as a flock of sheep. They move in clumsy gallop, 

 their bellies being raised entirely from the ground, upon tbeir flippers, 

 which gives them, when in motion, the appearance of bears. They are 

 sometimes called "sea bears" on account of this resemblance. In driv- 

 ing them care is taken not to hurry them, for, if driven too fast they 

 crowd together and injure the skins by biting each other, and also 

 become overheated and exhausted. They are driven from one-half mile 

 to 5 miles in from three to thirty-six hours, according to the location 

 of the hauling grounds. After reaching the killing grounds they are 

 allowed to rest and cool for several hours, particularly if the drive has 

 been a long one. The drives vary in number from five hundred to as 

 many thousand, as there happen to be few or many seals upon the haul- 

 ing-ground when the drive is made. In each drive there are some 

 seals that are either so large or so small that their skins are not desirable, 

 and sometimes a few females are driven up, not often, however, as they 

 seldom stray from the rookeries. All such are singled out and permitted 

 to escape to the water. The killing is done with a blow on the head 

 by a stout club, which crushes the skull, after which the skins are taken 

 off and carried into the salt houses. During the first half of the month 

 of June, from 5 to 8 per cent of the seals in the drive are turned away, 

 being either too small or too large, and from 10 to 12 per cent during 

 the latter half. In July the percentage is still greater, being about 40 

 per cent for the first and from 60 to 75 per cent for the latter half. 

 About one-half of the seals killed are about 3 years old, one-fourth 4, 

 and the remainder 2, 5, and 6. ISTo yearlings have been killed up 

 to the present time, though allowed by the lease, as their skins are 

 too small to be salal3le in the present state of the trade, but by some 

 trade in it they may become desirable in the future, and would then 

 be taken. This would injure the fisheries, because the yearlings of 

 both sexes haul together, and it would be almost impossible to sep- 

 arate them so as to kill only the males. There has been a waste in 

 taking the skins, due partly to the inexj)erience of the company's agent 

 and partly to accident and the carelessness of the natives. In making 

 the drives, particularly if they are long, and the sun happens to pierce 

 through the fog, some of the seals become exhausted and die at such 

 a distance from the salt houses that their skins can not well be carried 

 to them by hand, and are therefore left upon the bodies. This was 

 remedied during the last killing season by having a horse and cart to 

 follow the drive and to collect such skins. Some skins have also been 

 lost by killing more seals at a time than the force of men employed 

 could take care of properly. Good judgment and constant care are 

 required in taking the skins, as fifteen minutes' exposure to the sun 

 will spoil them by loosening the fur. Another source of waste is by 

 cutting the skins in taking them off in such a manner as to ruin them. 

 It was very difficult at first to induce the natives to use tlieir knives 

 carefully, and several hundred skins were lost in a season by careless 

 skinning; but by refusing to accept and pay for badly cut skins the 

 number has been greatly reduced, so that the loss this year on St. Paul 



