138 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIHILOF ISLANDS. 



intermingling with the cows, they herd together on the hauling grounds, 

 where they are easily approached and surrounded by the natives, who 

 drive them to the killing grounds without disturbing the breeding 



rookeries. 



Young males killed in .May and June, when examined are found to 

 be in prime condition, and their stomachs are tilled with lisli princi- 

 pally eodlish but those killed later in the season are found to be poor 

 and lean and their stomachs empty: which shows that the males rarely 

 leave the islands for food during the summer months. 



Statute law forbids the killing of the female seal, and nature regu- 

 lates the mat ter so that there is no danger of t heir being driven or killed 

 during the regular killing season, which takes place in June and July, 

 when all the "killing for skins" is done; and after ail my experience 

 here 1 am free to say that a small fraction of 1 per cent would repre- 

 sent all the females killed on the islands since they became the prop- 

 erty of the I'nited States. 



The compact family arrangement so tenaciously adhered to during 

 the breeding season becomes relaxed in August, and the females scatter, 

 and a few of them mix with the young males, and when the natives 

 make a drive for food it occasionally happens that a female will accom- 

 pany the males, and sometimes one or two may be accidentally killed. 

 1 use the word "accidentally" advisedly, because there is no good reason 

 why the natives or the lessees should kill a female designedly, as the 

 skin is of no more use or value (if so much), nor its llesh as good for 

 food as is that of tin 1 male. And. excepting accidents, it is a fact that 

 no female seals are. or ever were, killed on the Pribilof islands since 

 American rules and regulations were established there. 



The regular killing season for the skins under the lease begins June 

 1 and ends practically the last of July: and during this period the 

 first-class Alaskan fur-seal skins are taken. The seals are driven from 

 the hauling to the killing grounds by experienced natives under the 

 orders of the native chief, and the constant aim and object of all con- 

 cerned is to exercise the greatest care in driving, so that the animals 

 may not be in jured or abused in any manner. As the regulations require 

 the lessees to pay for every skin taken from seals killed by the orders 

 of their local agents, and as the skin of an overheated seal is valueless, 

 it is <iily reasonable to suppose that they would be the last men living 

 to encourage and allow their employees to overdrive or in any manner 

 injure the seals. I know that the orders given to me as local agent 

 were alwavs of the most positive and emphatic kind on this point, and 

 they were always obeyed to the letter. Instead of overdriving or neg- 

 lect in LI' the seals. I he lessees have endeavored to do everything in their 

 power to si i oil en the d i stance between the hauling and killing grounds, 

 or between the hauling grounds and the sail house. 



I'.efore (he Alaska Commercial Company leased the seal islands in 

 1S70 it wa^ a common practice to drive seals from Northeast Point to 

 the village of St. 1'anl Island, a distance of 1_J miles, ami from Xapadnie 

 to the village of St. (iconic Island, a distance of ti miles, across a very 

 rough and rn u'.u'ed count r\. 



From Ilalf-.vay Point and from Xapadnie on St. Paul Island seals 

 were dri ven respect ively "> and < miles. When the Alaska Commercial 

 Company took control of the islands the- drive from Northeast Point 

 was prohibited, and a -all house and other necessary buildings erected 

 \\ it 1 1 i ii i' miles of t lie killing ground, and all the skins taken t here were/ 

 salted and stored and shipped from Northeast Point. In 1ST!) a killing 

 ground was made and a salt house built at llalfwav Point, within "2 



