THE RUSSIAN FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 73 



tunity to sort out any uudesirable seals. Thus a uuuiljtr of undersized youngsters were allowed to 

 escape early in the drive. Before ascending the 700-toot slope mentioned above, a halt was made. 

 Soon, however, the climbing Ijegan. As may well be imagined, the ascent was very laborious. The 

 angle of the slope was at least 35 to 40 degrees, and the smooth grass and slippery clay made it almost 

 impossible to get a hold with the feet. The poor animals slid backward over and over again, and 

 when they finally succeeded the ground was made smoother and more difficnlt for those to follow. 

 Moanin;;, and blowing, and steaming, they press their smooth fore-flippers hard on the elusive clay, 

 and drag the hind part of the body after, while the men beat the ground with their long staves in 

 order to stimulate the animals to further effort. It happens rather fre(iuently that a seal loses his 

 balance, and after a series of hounding somersaults lauds at the foot of the hill, accompanied by the 

 laughter and merriment of the Aleuts. I expected every time to see it lie dead with broken back or 

 neik, but every time the involuntary acrobat arose unhurt, looked around in a dazed manner, as if 

 surprised at finding himself so suddenly alone, away from his comrades and tormentors, and scampered 

 away as fast as possible toward the sea. 



About halfway up the hill even the larger seals commenced to give out and refused to move farther, 

 from sheer exhaustion. As it would not do to leave these behind, a knock with a club on the head 

 finished their unhappy existence. In a minute, or a minute and a half, the skin had been ripped off 

 from the quivering body and thrown into the knapsack which each man carried ou his back. Having 

 arrived at the top, the survivors were given a long rest. The remaining 2 miles of the march were 

 easier, though the last ascent was hard enough on account of the tired condition of the animals. An 

 hour of rest was given before the final killing, to allow the animals to cool oS. 



Tlii.s drive can easily be traced on the map (pi. 13), as it followed tbe dotted line 

 between tbe Pestsliani liauling-ground and (ilinka village. 



With sliylit modifications the above description applies to most of the drives on 

 Copper Island dnring the days of plenty, though the present one was one of the 

 hardest, as it was the longest. A shorter route was afterwards devised, as detailed 

 under the description of the Glinka rookeries (p. .51). Of late years there has not 

 always been enough animals to make it worth while to drive them from Palata over 

 the l.OiiOfoot pass, and many of the small drives are killed not tar from the beach, 

 and the skins carried in knapsacks across the mountains to the salt-hou.ses on tbe 

 other side of the island. At Karabelni the carcasses were even skinneil right ou the 

 beach, not l,l.'00 yards from the breeding-grounds, so that the waves carried them out 

 to sea and occasiotially threw them ui> again on the rookery amongst the living seals. 

 However, even nowadays the seals are driven across the island every time their 

 meat is wanted for food, or whenever the drive consists of so many seals that it is 

 practically impossible for tlie people to carry all the skins on their backs, as testified 

 by the 700 decaying corpses on the killiug-ground at Pestshani salt-house, which I 

 photographed on August G, 1895 (pi. .j8c). 



To complete the picture of the driving on Coiiper Island, I may describe one of 

 these small drives, tbe princi]ial object of which was to obtain fre.sh meat for tbe 

 natives. It is thus recorded in my diary for August S, 1895 (pi. .58rt) : 



The weather was just right for ducks and fur-seals, and consequently we started out this morning 

 at 6 a. m. in a drizzling rain. There was no help for it. The drive could not be postponed, and as I 

 was going to photograph, vain or no rain, the cameras were taken along. The weather might iiossibly 

 be better ou the other side of the mountains, but it wasn't. 



As indicated yesterday, all the rookeries had to be scraped in order to make even a small tlrive, 

 and since I conld only be in one place at a time, I selected to go with the party taking the drive at 

 Zapadni. Here altogether .about 250 animals were finally gathered together, and the driving started 

 in three divisions. This could easily be done, for there were certainly enough people to attend to each 

 division, there being no less than 30 full-grown men and about half a dozen boys. What a difference 

 from former days, when 2 men or boys were all that could be spared for divisions of abcuit 200 seals 

 each ! Most of the animals were killable bachelors, a few females and undersized bachelors having 



