74 BULLETIN OP THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



been separated out, as the ilrive went on, bcloie the stuep ascent was leacbed. Thus far I liave only 

 Tvith certainty discovered oni' female driven across the mountain. 



The road was very wet and slippery, both from the long grass and the smooth clay which here 

 forms the chief material covering the underlying rock, and the ascent was consequently a very labo- 

 rious one. The middle part of it is very steep, and in one place steps have been cut in the ground so 

 as to facilitate the climbing. The altitude of the pass forming the highest point on this drive is about 

 800' [TCOfect]. 



The seals soon commenced to give out, and the men then resorted to all sorts of goading them on, 

 short of killing, in order to get as many of the seals as possible alive to the killing-ground at the vil- 

 lage, since they wanted the meat badly. Only when a seal could absolutely go no farther, after having 

 been urged on by being poked and beaten with the sticks, only then it was killed ami skinned. But 

 not even then in all cases, for if it was a small and therefore particularly tender animal, it was grabbed 

 by the hind legs and dragged along [pi. 62o] until some steep declivity was reached, down which it 

 was then flung. Yet a good many had to be killed along the road. Little girls and still smaller boys 

 arrived now with big skin bags on their backs [pi. 626] to carry home the skins and choice parts of the 

 meat. The last division, as well as about one hundred seals from Palata Rookery, reached the level 

 ground behind Glinka village at 10 a. m. and were given a rest there. 



At H o'clock the final drive in four divisions was begun toward the killing-ground near the beach 

 (not 800 yards) west of the village. Down the steep embankment (fully 60 feet high) the numerous 

 drives have worn a deep ch.innel-like rut in the slippery clay, and down this chute the animals 

 came rushing as if it were a toboggan slide [pi. 636]. They slid down in bunches together, and became 

 jiiled up at the bottom in big heaps. As they were now driven over the sand of the beach, a few 

 undersized se.als anil a solitary matka or two were sorted out and allowed to escape into the water, 

 but the final culling was done on the killiug-ground. Altogether 47 undersized animals were thus 

 driven over the mountains .and finally permitted to go back into the sea. 



These young .inimals let loose on the sandy beach afforded great sport for the younger generation 

 of future seal-killers, if seals there be left when they grow up. Four little tots, five to six years old, 

 with sticks in tlieir hands, tried to drive into the water two young seals too tired to advance farther 

 and asking nothing but to be allowed to lie down and rest. The seals resented the attack, and the 

 four little fellows hit them over the head and the snouts with their sticks, as they had seen their 

 parents do with the big ones, and finally succeeded in driving them into the sea.' 



The above descriptions give a fair idea of drives on Copper Island as they were 

 and as they are. They demonstrate the tremendous difficulties and the hard.ships on 

 the seals. A glance at the maps of the Cojjper Island rookeries and a study of the 

 description.s I have given of them in another chaj)ter must convince anybody that there 

 i.s nothing even approaching them on the Pribylofs. 



Not so on Bering Island. There the drives are short and easy on the seals. The 

 killing-ground is located scarcely more than 500 yards from the main rookery, and 

 right in front of the summer village where the men live during the sealing .season. The 

 longest drive ever taken is only li miles long; the road is over level ground, mostly 

 covered with grass, and the ascent up the coast escarpment is easy and only 30 feet high. 



A grave feature of the Bering Island drives, however, consists in the mixing in of 

 females and pups with the bachelors throughout the season. I have elsewhere in this 

 report treated of this side in detail, but it may not be superfluous to give an account 

 of one of the largest drives last summer on North lieef Eookery, Bering Island, which 

 took place Angust 22. 



It being necessary to wait for low water, we did not start until 7 o'clock a. m. The 

 morning was raw (about + 50° F.) and dark, a drizzling fog enveloping the scene and 



' I am sorry to say th.at.agood deal of unnecessary suffering was caused the anim.als sim])ly for the 

 fun of it. Tlio people can hardly be blamed. They are certainly not particularly cruel by nature, 

 but on the other hand they evidently have no idea of such a thing as cruelty to .animals. They have 

 grown up from babyhood among these scenes, and their feelings are naturally blunted. It must not 

 bo forgotten, however, that in the midst of onr own civilization more cruelty to animals is practiced 

 in a single day than in a whole season on the seal islands. 



