248 THE SEALS. 



plunged over a cliff, falling 60 feet upon broken stones and rocks along 

 the shore. Out of the whole number only seven were killed, the 

 remainder taking to the water; and these seven met death, 1 believe, 

 from being the first to go over and the others falling upon them smoth- 

 ered them. 



As long as a seal is not overheated in driving he could be driven any 

 number of successive days without in any way impairing or affecting 

 in the slightest degree his procreative powers, of course always pro- 

 vided the natives use the same methods in driving that they always 

 have done. Seal lite, 1 am positive, was never affected in this manner 

 on the Pribilof Islands. 



A few seals are injured by redriving (often conflicted with overdriv- 

 ing and sometimes so called), but the number so 



Charles J. Goff, p. 113. injured is inconsiderable and could have no ap- 

 preciable effect upon seal life through destroying 

 the virility of the male. The decrease, caused by pelagic sealing, com- 

 pelled whatever injurious redriving has taken place on the islands, as 

 it was often necessary to drive every two or three days from the same 

 hauling grounds, which caused many seals let go in a former "drive" 

 to be driven over again before thoroughly rested. If a " drive " was 

 made only once a week from a certain hauling ground, as had been the 

 case before pelagic sealing grew to such enormous proportions and 

 depleted the rookeries, there would be no damage at all resulting from 

 redriving. 



During my experience (and I was on the killing ground at every kill- 

 ing that took place while 1 was on the islands) 

 Abial P. Loud, p. 38. I never saw a male seal which had been injured 

 by being redriven several times from the same 

 hauling ground. I am convinced that while 1 was there there was not 

 a single case in which the virility of a male seal was destroyed or im- 

 paired in the slightest degree by driving, redriving, or overdriving, 

 and I took particular notice of the condition of the males during each 

 drive. The males old enough for service on the breeding grounds 

 were always allowed to return to the hauling ground from a "drive." 



Of course many of these were redriven, and some of them several 

 times during the season, hut I believe no injury 

 H.H.McIntyre,p.4:9. resulted to them from this process. They were 

 subjected upon the drive to no greater exertion, 

 and rarely to more cruel treatment in any way than Ave habitually put 

 upon our domestic animals. The only noticeable effect upon them re- 

 sulting from the "drive" was sometimes abraded hind flippers, and, of 

 course, the signs of healthy fatigue naturally following continued ex- 

 ertion, from which they quickly recovered. The loss of virility and de- 

 struction of reproductive power in theolder males by reason of repeated 

 driving and other hardships to which the young animals are subjected 

 upon the islands exists, if at all, only in the imagination of theorists 

 Avho have reported upon the subject. It is arrant nonsense. Impotent 

 males are never seen there in any species until they have become so by 

 old age. 



The "hauling grounds" nearest the "salt houses" were, as a matter 

 of course, most frequently visited by the hunters. 



H. W. Hcln tyre, 2>. 137. At each time of driving some animals were found 

 too large or too small, or otherwise undesirable, 



