260 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



Each day during the season, which lasts from the 20th June to the Ist Angust, 

 there are three killings : one on St. George, one at the village of St. Paul, and another 

 at North-east Point, St. Panl. 



I have marked on outline Maps of the islands the extent of some of these drives, 

 which are as follows: 



Monday, from the Reef ; Tuesday, from Lukannon ; Wednesday, Tolstoi; Thursday, 

 at Half-way Point (the drive being brought from Polavina) ; Friday, at Zapadnie 

 (when the water is smooth the killers go by boat to Zapadnie, but in rough weatlier 

 the seals are driven to the village) ; Saturday and Sunday drives are made up from 

 some of the places driven from earlier in the week, or a number of small drives from 

 several places are united. At North-east Point drives are made, commencing at one 

 end on Monday and continuing round wherever enough seals can be found. On St. 

 George drives are made from each rookery in succession, the killing ground being just 

 below the village. Some of these driving trails are from a quarter to a mile long, 

 but the longest, from Zapadnie, is 5 miles. 



The fur-seal is utterly unfitted by nature for an extended and rapid safe journey 

 on land. It will progress rapidly for a short distance, but soon stops from sheer 

 exhaustion. Its flippers are used as feet, the belly is raised clear of the ground, and 

 the motion is a jerky but comparatively rapid lope. When exhausted, the animal 

 flops over on its side as soon as it stops moving, being unable to stand up. 



The drives are conducted in this manner: as soon as it is light, which is between 

 1 and 2 in the morning, several natives make their way between the seals hauled 

 out near a rookery and the water, and cut out as large a drive as possible. As it 

 is the habit of the seals when alarmed to get as far as possible from any strange 

 object, it follows that they are easily driven in any direction by simply walking 

 behind them waving the arms and making a noise. The character of the ground 

 over which the seals are driven is in many places utterly unfit for the purpose : up 

 and down the steep slopes of sand dunes, over cinder hills studded with sharp rocks, 

 some places being so bad that they are avoided by the people themselves; but the 

 seals have been driven over the same ground for many years, and on some of the 

 hills deep paths have been worn by the passing of tens of thousands of seals. 

 188 No attempts have been made to remove the rocks or to lessen the difficulties 

 of the passage, and the seals are still driven pell-mell over huge rocks and 

 down steep inclines, where many are crushed and injured by the hurrying mass of 

 those behind. When the drive reaches the killing ground it is rounded up and left 

 in charge of a man or boy to await the killiug, which begins at 7 a. m. A pod of 

 perhaps sixty seals are then cut out of the drive and driven to the killers, who 

 with long wooden clubs stun those seals that are of proper size and condition by a 

 blow or two on top of the head. The seals that are not killed are then driven away 

 by tin pans and a great noise, and while in an excited and over-heated condition 

 rush, as fast as it is possible for a seal to go, into the icy-cold waters of Behring Sea. 



It will thus be seen that these seals are subjected on an average from 2 o'clock in 

 the morning until 10 to a long drive over very rough ground, then to a dense herd- 

 ing, where they are continually in motion and crowding each other, thence to an 

 intense excitement on the killing ground, and finally in a condition little better than 

 madness rushing into icy cold water. Uncivilized and partly civilized man has no 

 pity for dumb brutes, and as these drives are conducted entirely by the natives, who 

 prefer indolence in the village to the discomforts of a drive in the fog and rain, it 

 follows that the seals are often driven much faster than they should be, and abso- 

 lutely without thought or care. But this is not all. The seals that are spared soon 

 haul out again near a rookery, and perhaps the very next day are obliged to repeat 

 the process, and again and again throughout the season, unless in the meantime they 

 have crawled out on a bench to die, or have sunk exhausted to the bottom. The 

 deaths of these seals are directly caused as I shall exjjlain, and, as far as lam aware, 

 it is mentioned now for the first time. 



A seal body may be said to consist of three parts, an inner, which is the flesh, 

 bones, &c., a ring of fat surrounding this of from 1 to 4 or 5 inches thick, and then 

 the skin which carries the fur. I think it will be readily seen that ;i forced drive 

 for a long distance over rough ground, up and down hiils, and over and among huge 

 boulders and fine sand, with a subsequent herding, and then after a most violent 

 exercise a sudden bath in icy cold water, must of necessity disturb that equilibrium 

 of vital forces which is essential to the good health of any animal. It is known 

 that the stomachs of the fur-seals on the islands contain no food, and that in all 

 probability many of them have fasted for several weeks. When driven into the 

 water the seals are weak from two causes, the drive and lack of food; before they 

 can secure food they must rest, and rest is only obtainable at the expense of that 

 most vital necessity of these animals, their fat. I remember looking with great 

 curiosity for the cause of death of the first dead seal that I found stranded on the 

 beach. Externally there was nothing to indicate it, but the first stroke of the knife 

 revealed instantly what I am confident has been the cause of death of countless 



