356 METHOD. 



they move northward they will catch more; while others believe they 

 can do better by staying close to Cape Flattery. Those vessels which 

 carry Indian hunters go to the Indian villages, and some of them take 

 as many as fifteen canoes if they can get them. Of late years the In- 

 dians are learning the prices of skins, and claim more than the owners 

 can afford to pay. They always want to ship on a first-class schooner, 

 unless they own it, when any rattletrap will do. When they start for 

 Bering Sea they usually leave a part of their canoes behind, taking 

 about one-third less than they used in the spring catch. The vessels 

 furnish them Hour, biscuits, tea, coffee, sugar, and a little meat when 

 they can not get fresh seal meat. They have two men to each canoe. 

 The head man of the canoe receives the money and pays his assistant. 

 Each canoe is usually provided with a couple of steerers, and either a 

 shotgun or ritle. The most skillful hunter among Indians ou board is 

 called "captain," and it is his duty to tell his men when aud where to 

 lower their canoes for hunting, and to transact all business between 

 them and the captain of the vessel. Seven or eight years ago the In- 

 dians were paid by the length of the skin, but now they are paid by its 

 grade. 



In fine weather the boats leave the vessel at daylight and hunt until 

 dark, taking about one day's provisions with them; and should they 

 got lost in a fog they have a hard time until they are picked up by 

 some vessel. When the boats come alongside the vessel, at night, the 

 skins are counted on deck for each boat; the mate takes charge of 

 them and salts them down in the hold, and the crew of each boat gets 

 credit for the skins it captured. The work continues until the spriug 

 season is finished, when some go to Victoria to refit, and others in Ban- 

 dy Sound, and send their skins to Victoria by steamer, with orders for 

 supplies to be sent to them when the steamer returns. Others go on 

 without coming into port to Sand Point, or some other place on the 

 coast, where there is a store, and take supplies before entering Bering 

 Sea. They do not like to go into Victoria, because they usually have 

 trouble with their crews. The work is hard aud dangerous. The pay 

 is small, and many run away when they get a chance. There are very 

 few sailors among the crews, the most of them being green hands. Of 

 course each vessel carries two or three sailors in case anything happens 

 to the rigging or sails. 



When they arrive in Bering Sea later in the season, they start in 

 to work in earnest. The water is full of them and you can hear them 

 firing all around. The vessels enter the sea about July, but get the 

 most of the seals in August or early September, when the weather gets 

 bad, but they usually have a good catch by that time, if not interfered 

 with. When the hunting is finished they return to the home port, the 

 crew is paid off, the vessel is laid up, and the owner takes charge of 

 the skins and either sells them in the home port or ships them to Lon- 

 dou. 



United States Revenue Steamer Oorwtn, 



St. Paul, Kadialc Island, Alaska, June 14, 1892. 

 Hon. Secretary of the Treasury, 



Washington, D. C: 



Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith the following additional 



c h vi t uo ' :;es upon pelagic sealing, trusting that it may 



498.' * 001 ' u > ( >$• prove of intei est to the Department. The duties 



of the vessel, when constantly cruising, require so 



much of my time that I have been unable to make a full report upon 



this subject us I had hoped to do. 



