154 MAUINE MAMMALS OF THE NORTH-WESTERN COAST. 
barren islands, rocks, or points, which would appear quite inaccessible to any but 
sealers or sea-elephant hunters, by reason of the heavy surf and surge about them; 
and where men occasionally have perished of starvation or thirst, by not receiving 
the needful supplies from the ship, which might have been wrecked before the time 
for her return. One can hardly imagine more desolate habitations than the Diego 
Ramirez, off Cape Horn, or the Crozets and Prince Edward's Islands, in the Indian 
Ocean ; but these places are no more forbidding in point of gloomy climate, isola- 
tion, and barrenness, than scores of others that might be mentioned, where men 
were left for months with or without a boat, as occasion required. 
On the coast of California, many beaches were found fronting gullies, where 
seals in large numbers formerly gathered ; and as they there had plenty of ground 
to retreat upon, the sealers sometimes drove them far enough back to make sure 
of the whole herd, or that portion of them the skins of which were desirable. 
On the North-western Coast, south of the Aleutian Islands, but few Fur Seals 
are taken, and those are chiefly caught by the Indians with spears of native manu- 
facture — the fishing being almost entirely confined to the mouth of Juan de Fuca 
Strait, and the contiguous coast of the Pacific. 
The Indian seal -fishers are among the tribes inhabiting the coast from Gray's 
Harbor to the southern part of Vancouver Island. The seals appear on the coast 
some years as early as the first of March, and more or less remain till July or 
August ; but they are most plentiful in April and May. During these two months, 
the Indians devote nearly all of their time to sealing, when the weather will permit. 
It is but a few years since the Indians have turned their attention to taking 
seals solely to procure their skins and oil for barter ; and what may seem surpris- 
ing, it is but a few years since the animals have been known to resort to the 
vicinity of the sti*ait in such large numbers. We have it from the most reliable 
source, that there were but a few dozens of Fur Seal skins taken annually by the 
Indians, from 1843 to 1864 ; after which period, the number of skins sold by them 
at Victoria, Vancouver Island, Nee -ah Bay, and points on Puget Sound, has steadily 
increased, up to 1869, when the number in the aggregate amounted to fully five 
thousand skins. 
When going in pursuit of seals, three or four natives embark In -a canoe at an 
early hour in the morning, and usually return the following evening. The fishing- 
gear consists of two spears, which are fitted to a pronged pole fifteen feet in length ; 
to the spears a line is attached, which is fastened to the spear -pole close to, or is 
held in the hand of, the spearman when he darts the weapon. A seal -club is also 
provided, as well as two seal -skin buoys — the latter being taken in the canoe to 
