MANNER OF TAKING. 235 



I have heard it said that the seals are slaughtered indiscriminately 

 on the seal islands, and that the natives take no 



care of tin 1 , seals. The contrary of this is true. Anton Melovedoff,p,142. 

 Eules could hardly be made any more stringent 



than the rules laid down by the Government and company officers for 

 the care and management of the seals, and no people could be more 

 careful in obeying them in letter and spirit than what ours are. 



In 1871 I visited the islands and directed the policy and practice to 

 be pursued under the lease. In this pursuit I of 

 course became conversant with all the details of . Gu * tave Niebaum,p. 202 



,, , tt t ji t» • r • (Commander Islands). 



the business, under the Russian regime upon 



the Commander Islands prior to 1868 the number of seals taken 



annually did not exceed about 5,000, the skins of which were dried for 



market. 



The methods employed in taking the skins are, Daniel Webster, p. 183. 

 in my opinion, the best that can be adopted. 



DRIVING-. 

 Page 155 of The Case. 



I was also instructed to use the greatest care and caution in driving 

 and killing the bachelor seals in order not to in- 

 jure those not wanted for their skins, but to drive George B. Adams, p. 157. 

 them back from the killing grounds into the sea. 



The same care was exercised in cutting out the w. C. AUis, p. 97. 

 drove of " bachelor " or killable seals from the bor- 

 ders of a rookery and in bringing them up to the killing ground. Active 

 young men were selected for this service, and placed in charge of a chief, 

 whose orders they implicitly obeyed. 



The driving was (lone mostly in the night, and in dry or warm 

 weather was a slow and tedious process; yet the men were very patient 

 with their charge, moving them only at such rate as they could go 

 without becoming overheated, and taking advantage of every stretch 

 of moist ground or pool of water to cool them off, and sometimes going 

 themselves in the water up to their necks in order to give the animals 

 a cold bath and take them out of the water and continue the journey. 

 Any representation that the seals were overdriven or overheated, to their 

 subsequent injury, is drawn from the imagination. Sometimes a drove 

 would be caught upon a dry stretch of ground in unusually warm 

 weather, and a few of them perish, but this did not often happen. 



The driving and killing of the bachelor seals was always carried on 

 in the most careful manner, and during my stay 

 upon the islands there was practically no injury Charles Bryant, p. 8. 

 caused to seal life by overdriving, and after 1873, 



when horses and mules were introduced by the lessees to transport the 

 skins, the seals were not driven as far, killing grounds being estab- 

 lished near the hauling grounds, and the loss by overdriving was re- 

 duced to the fraction of 1 per cent. * * * 



In all cases, at suitable intervals and before driving to the killing 

 grounds, the herd was halted and the males of 5 years old or older were 

 allowed to escape. 



