HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 25 



they are paid at the rate of is. %d. per animal. The work 

 connected with the killing of the annual quota of fur seals 

 may be divided into two distinct features, the separation of 

 the seals of a certain age and size from the main body and 

 their removal to the killing ground, and the selection among 

 the select and killing and skinning the same. It is the 

 habit of the young male seals, up to the age of four years, 

 to lie near the sea-shore, and the experienced natives 

 manage to crawl in between them and the sea, and gradually 

 drive them inland in divisions of from two thousand to three 

 thousand. It is unsafe to drive the seals more than five or six 

 miles in any one day, as they easily become overheated, and 

 the skins are thereby injured. When night comes on the 

 driving ceases, and sentries are posted round each division 

 to prevent the animals from straying during the night, 

 occasional whistling being sufficient to keep them together- 

 In the morning, if the weather be favourable, the driving is 

 continued until the killing ground is reached, where the 

 victims are allowed to rest over-night under guard ; and 

 finally, as early as possible in the morning, the sealers 

 appear with their clubs, when again small parties of twenty 

 or thirty seals are separated from their fellows, surrounded 

 by the sealers, and the slaughter commences. Even at this 

 last moment another selection is made, and any animal 

 appearing to the eye of the Aleut to be either above or 

 below the specified age is left untouched and allowed to go 

 on its way to the shore. The men with clubs proceed from 

 one group to another, immediately followed by the men 

 with the knives, who stab each stunned seal to the heart to 

 secure its immediate death. These men are in turn followed 

 by the skinners, who with great rapidity divest the bodies 

 of their valuable covering, leaving, however, the head and 

 flippers intact. A few paces behind the skinners come 

 carts drawn by mules, into which the skins are rapidly 

 thrown and carried away. The wives and daughters of the 

 sealers linger in the rear of the death-dealing column, 

 taking away the blubber, which they carry on their heads, 



