DRIVING. 243 



on Polatka rookery, about 30 of them bachelors. I saw no cows, and 

 think they had not yet arrived, as 40 codfish were landed on the decks 

 of the Albatross, where she lay within 500 yards from the shore, in an 

 hour. I think if feeding cows had been about the rookery, the fish 

 would not have been found so close .to it. From an elevated position 

 on Polatka, I obtained a good view of the rookery next above it, called 

 Pestchanni. The character of this is similar to Polatka, but has a 

 sand beach adjacent to it where the bachelors doubtless mostly herd. 

 The drive from here, as I was shown it, leads up a shallow stream a 

 short distance, and then over the mountain side to the ridge, a height 

 of fully <S00 feet, from whence it continues down to the opposite side 

 of the island. Both of these drives on Copper Island are exceedingly 

 hard and rough; 1 know of none on the Pribilof Islands to compare 

 with them. 



The slaughter of animals for their skins was always conducted care- 

 fully and systematically, and in accordance with 

 wise regulations looking to the proper protection Jno. M. Morton, p. 68. 

 and conservation of the seal life. The killing of 



females was prohibited, and, fortunately, a strict adherence to the law 

 in this respect was entirely practicable by reason of the fact that the 

 "bachelors" or killable seals occupy positions on the islands separate 

 and apart from the breeding animals, so that the latter were never dis- 

 turbed in the drove. There were often driven to the killing grounds 

 at the same time as many as two or three thousand seals, from which 

 were selected without difficulty such animals as were suitable for 

 slaughter, while all others were allowed to return to the water. 



In the matter of driving, great care was exercised to prevent over- 

 heating and exhaustion on the road, and the loss of animals in this re- 

 spect was very slight. I may state here that I have never seen any 

 evidence that the seals derived any material injury from their overland 

 trip to the killing grounds. It has, I believe, been claimed by some 

 one writing on the subject, that the large seals which have been thus 

 driven, and subsequently in the culling-out process dismissed from the 

 herd and permitted to return to the water, suffer a. loss of virility or 

 the power of procreation by their journey. Such statement seems to 

 me to be puerile and altogether unworthy of serious consideration. As 

 I have said, the driving was done carefully, and without undue haste, 

 and while an animal might occasionally succumb to the heat of an un- 

 usually warm day, as a rule the physical exertion called for on the 

 part of the seals on these enforced journeys was not greater than they 

 customarily put forth in their voluntary ramblings over the dunes and 

 rocks of the islands. Indeed, the mortality among the seal life from 

 whatsoever cause, outside of that incident to the killing of the animals 

 for their skins, was always surprisingly small, and could not have 

 affected the rookeries in any appreciable manner. 



While on the islands I observed with great care the manner of driv- 

 ing and handling the young male seals allowed 

 by law to be killed for their skins, and I am con- J. H. Moulton, p. 72. 

 vinced the methods now in use on the islands can 



not be improved upon, and especially because all the driving is done 

 by the natives, who from generation to generation have made this 

 their only business, being trained up to it from boyhood. Every pre- 



