15<) SEAL LIFE ON THE PKIHILOF ISLANDS. 



of li'J, miles. Seals turned away from the killing grounds return to the 

 rookery from which they were driven: therefore a male seal is not 

 redriven day alter day. because a hauling ground is always given sev- 

 eral days' rest before being driven from again. 1 never saw or heard of 

 the generative organs of a male seal being injured by driving or by 

 redriving. and if such a thing had taken place, even in exceptional 

 castes, tin 1 natives would have noticed and reported it. which they never 

 did. 1 have seen a seal's flippers made sore 4 by driving, but 1 never 

 saw one that was seriously injured by driving. 1 do not believe that a 

 male seal's powers of reproduction were ever affected by driving or 

 redriving. 



The bulls maintain their positions on the rookeries from the time 

 they arrive till the cows come by most bloody battles, and after the 

 cows commence arriving they are continually contending for their pos- 

 sessions. During these conflicts they are often seriously wounded, and 

 their exertions are far more violent than any effort made by a young 

 male during a drive. Then. too. the male seal must have great vitality 

 to remain on the rookeries for three months without eating or drinking 

 and with little sleep. In spite of this drain on his vital force he 

 is able to fertilize all the cows which he can get possession of, and a 

 barren cow is a rarity. 1 believe that a bull can serve one hundred or 

 more cows, and it is an absurdity to think that an animal possessing 

 such remarkable vigor could be made impotent bv being driven or 

 redriven when a bachelor. An impotent bull would have neither the 

 inclination or vigor to maintain himself on the rookeries against the 

 fierce and vigorous possessors of harems. The only bulls hauling up 

 away from the breeding rookeries are those whose extreme old age and 

 long service have made them impotent and useless, and i have never 

 seen or heard tell of anything that would make an exception to this 

 rule. The methods employed in taking the skins are, in my opinion, 

 tin 1 best that can be adopted. The killing grounds are situated as near 

 the rookeries and hauling grounds as is possible without having the 

 breeders or bachelors disturbed by the smell of blood or putrefaction, 

 and most stringent regulations have always been enforced to prevent 

 disturbing or frightening the breeding seals. 



1 am convinced that if open-sea sealing had never been indulged in 

 to the extent it has since 18S.1, or perhaps a year or two earlier. 100.000 

 male skins could have been taken annually forever from the I'ribilof 

 Islands without decreasing the seal herd below its normal si/e and 

 condition. The cause of the decrease which has taken place can be 

 accounted for only by open sea sealing: for. until that means of destruc- 

 tion to seal life grew to be of such proportions as to alarm those inter- 

 ested in the seals, the seal herd increased, and since that time the 

 decrease of the number of seals has been proportionate to the increase 

 in the number of those engaged in open sea sealing. The majority of 

 seals killed in the water are females, and all the females killed in Ber- 

 ing Sea are mothers who have left their pups on the rookeries and gone 

 some distance from the islands in search of food. The death of every 

 such mother seal a! sea means the death ol her pup on shore, because 

 it is absolutely and entirely dependent on her for its daily sustenance. 

 I never heard of any disease among I lie seal herd, nor of an epidemic 

 of any sort or at anv time in the history of the islands. I do not 

 remember t he precise date of the first successful raid upon t he rookeries 

 bv scaling schooners, but 1 do know that for the past ten years there 

 have been many such raids attempted, and a few of them successfully 

 carried out. and that as the number of schooners increased around the 



