FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1910. 15 



supposedly was shipped from St. Paul on the Homer, on August 28,. 

 word was received in October last from Assistant Agent H. D. Chi- 

 chester, in charge on St. Paul, that after the departure of the Homer 

 with the skins on board a bundle containing 2 sealskins was found 

 wedged under the floor of the skin lighter or bidarra, in which 

 crevice it had become obscured during the shipment of the skins. 

 These two were placed in the salt house to apply on the shipment 

 of the following year. The total number of skins, therefore, shipped 

 from St. Paul in 1910 for Government account was 10,086. 



St. George. — On August 23, 1910, the whole number of skins taken 

 on St. George, from the sources enumerated (2,834), were placed 

 on board the Homer to be shipped to San Francisco for Govern- 

 ment account. 



The whole number of skins from both islands, recapitulated from 

 the data already given, is as follows: 



From St. Paul: 



By North American Commercial Company 664 



By Government 10, 086 



From St. George, by Government 2, 834 



Total 13, 584 



RECORD OF DRIVES. 



On St. Paul, during the season of 1910, no record was kept of 

 the seals dismissed from the food drive made on June 6 on Sea Lion 

 Rock, as the configuration of the ground there is such that the 

 seals can not be herded, but escape in every direction upon the 

 landing of the clubbers, who kill such as they can while the seals are 

 running off. So also no record' was kept in the drive for "branding' ' 

 on June 17, from which at the same time 145 seals were killed. 

 The record of dismissals, therefore, begins on July 3, when the 

 drive was made at Northeast Point for "branding," at which, at 

 the same time, the 2-year-old bachelors in the drive, not being 

 required to be marked, were killed. 



In the 32 drives made on St. Paul from July 3 to August 10, 

 a total of 12,434 seals appeared, of which 9,179, or 73 per cent, 

 were killed and 3,255 dismissed. Those dismissed consisted of 

 1,581 small, 825 large, and 849 of those marked for the breeding 

 reserve. This killing was 4 per cent closer than during the lessee's 

 killing season of 1909, when 69 per cent of all seals driven were 

 killed. 



