66 



THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Encysted bullets, arrows, etc., in fur-seals. — On the killing- grounds at St. George, in June, 1873, 

 the natives would frequently call my attention to seals that they were skinning, in the hides of which buckshot 

 were embedded and encysted just under the skin, in the blubber. From one animal I picked out fifteen shot, and 

 the holes which they must have made in the skin were so entirely healed over as not to leave the faintest trace of 

 a scar. These buckshot were undoubtedly received from the natives of the northwest coast, anywhere between 

 the straits of Fuca and the Aleutian islands. The number taken by these hunters on the high seas is, however, 

 inconsiderable ; the annual average, perhaps, of 5,000 skins is a fair figure— some seasons more, some seasons 

 less. The natives also have found on the killing-grounds, in the manner just indicated, specimens of the 

 implements employed by the Aleuts to the southward, such as tips of birds' spears and bone lances, comfortably 

 encysted in the blubber under the skin ; but only very small fragments are found, because I believe any 

 larger pieces would create suppuration and slough out of the wounds.* 



Increase of the seal-life. — I am free to say that it is not within the power of human management to 

 promote this end to the slightest appreciable degree over its present extent and condition as it stands in the state 

 of nature, heretofore described. It cannot fail to be evident, from my detailed narration of the habits and life of 

 the fur-seal on these islands during so large a part of every year, that could man have the same supervision and 

 control over this animal during the whole season which he has at his command while they visit the land, he might 

 cause them to multiply and increase, as he would so many cattle, to an iudelinite number — only limited by time and 

 the means of feeding them. But the case in question, unfortunately, is one where the fur-seal is taken, by demands 

 for food, at least six months out of every year, far beyond the reach or even cognizance of any man, where it is 

 all this time exposed to many known powerful and destructive natural enemies, and probably many others, equally 

 so, unknown, which prey upon it, and, in accordance with that well-recognized law of nature, keeps this seal-life at 

 a certain number — at a figure which has been reached, for ages past, and will continue to be in the future, as far 

 as they now are — their present maximum limit of increase, namely, between four and five million seals, in round 

 numbers. This law holds good everywhere throughout the animal kingdom, regulating and preserving the 

 equilibrium of life in the state of nature; did it not hold good, these seal-islands and all Bering sea would have 

 been literally covered, and have swarmed like the Medusa' of the waters, long before the Russians discovered them. 

 But, according to the silent testimony of the rookeries, which have been abandoned by the seals, and the noisy- , 

 emphatic assurance of those now occupied, there were no more seals when first seen here by human eyes in 1786 

 and 1787, than there are now in 1881, as far as all evidence goes. 



* Touching this matter of tho approximate numbers of fur-seals which are annually slain in the open sea, straits, and estuaries of Bering 

 and the North Pacific oceans, I have, necessarily, no definite data upon which to base a calculation ; but such as I have, points to the 

 capture every year of 1.0U0 to 1,400 young fur-seals in the waters of Oomnak pass, and as many in the straits adjoining Borka village, by 

 the resident Aleuts; these are the only two points throughout the entire Aleutian chain and the peninsula where any Callorhinua is taken 

 by the natives, except au odd example now and then elsewhere. On the northwest coast, between San Francisco and Prince William 

 sound, the fur-seal is only apprehended, to any extent, at two points, viz, off the straits of Fuca, ten to twenty miles at sea, sweeping over 

 a series of largo fishing shoals which are located there, and in that reach of water between Queen Charlotte island and the mouth of 

 Dixon sound. Several small schooners, with native crews, and the Indians, themselves, in their own canoes, cruise for them here during 

 May and June of each year. How many they secure every season is merely a matter of estimation, and therefore not a subject of definite 

 announcement. In my Judgment, after carefully investigating the question at Victoria and Port Townsend in 1874, 1 believe, as an average, 

 that these pelagic fur-sealers do not, altogether, secure 5,000 animals annually. 



Those seals killed by the Aleuts of Makushin and Borka settlements, above referred to, are all pups, and are used at home — none 

 exported for trade. 



The last record which I can find of fur-seals being taken on laud other than that of the Pribylov group of the American side, is the 

 following brief table of Techmainov, who, in 1863, published (in 2 volumes) a long recapitulation of the Russian -American Company's 

 labors in Alaska as illustrated by a voluminous series of personal letters by the several agents of that company. Techmainov says that 

 these fur-seals were taken on the Farralones, which are small islets just abreast of the entrance to the Golden Gate, California. 



This period of 1824-1834 was the one passed by the Russians in their occupation of Ross or Bodega, California, where a colony was 

 engaged in raising cereals and beef, for the stations in Alaska. I am inclined to think, however, that very likely many of the 

 specimens of Callorhinus counted in this table were shot or speared, as they now are, out at sea off the straits of Fuca. The number is 

 insignificant, but the pelts were not very valuable in those days, and probably very slight exertions were made to get them ; or, othcrw ise, 

 3,000 or 5,000 annually could have been secured at sea then, as they are to-day, by our people and the Indians of Cape Flattery. 



The record, however, of killing fur-seals on the Farralones, between 1800 and 1837, by the Russians, who were established then at 

 Bodega, California, is an honest one. I do not find any mention made of the fact that they bred there, and I am inclined to thick they 

 did not. I believe that when small squads of CaUorhinus ursinus hauled out on the Californian islets, they did so lured by the large 

 numbers of breeding Zalophua, and the Eumetojrios which repaired there then, as they do now, for that, purpose. Had the sea-lions not 

 been there, in the manner aforesaid, the presence of fur-seals on North American land, elsewhere than on that of the Pribylov group, 

 would not have been thus determined and established. 



Again, in this connection, and corroborative, is the fact that in 1878 a lew hundred fur-seals were taken by sea-lion hunters among 

 the Zalophua at Santa Barbara and (Juadaloupe islands, southern Californian coast. I am assured of this fait by the evidence of the 

 gentleman who himself purchased the skins from the lucky huuters. None had ever been seen there before, by our people, and uono 

 hav6 been taken since. The Russian archives give no testimony On this score. 



