fur seals K 



SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 169 



ils regularly pass out from the waters of Boring Sea into the 

 North Pacific by the middle or end of November as a body; that these 

 animals do not turn to the eastward and up by the peninsular and 

 Kadiak coast, but keep directly south till lost to view. 



From ship captains who have sailed during the last twenty years 

 between San Francisco and Pn.net Sound, i have learned that while 

 making out from San Francisco from the Sound, a long westerly reach, 

 they have seen large numbers of fur seals 800 or more miles at sea in 

 January or late December moving toward the California Coast. Early 

 in January the tirst stragglers begin to appear off the California Coast 

 and by the middle of February the main body of the herd arrives 

 Simultaneously oft" between Santa Barbara and Cape Mendocino. From 

 this point the progress of the herd northward is indicated on the chart 

 hereto attached. 1 The fact of this annual migration of the Pribilof fur- 

 seal herd and the route thereof is stated from knowledge derived from 

 my own study in the field, and from the testimony of those traders and 

 mariners who responded to my inquiries at Unalaska, Umak, Sannak, 

 Belcovskie, Kadiak, Nucliek, Yakutat, Sitka, Fort Simpson, Victoria, 

 Port Townsend, and Astoria. 



THE HERD VISIT ONLY THE PLACE OF THEIR H1RTH. 



From all the facts that have come to my knowledge in relation to the 

 annual migration of the fur-seal herd, and also from information care- 

 fully gathered, I am convinced and believe that the Pribilof herd of fur 

 seals now never land upon any other coast or islands save the Pribi- 

 lof group, the land of their birth. At no time along the coast does the 

 herd approach nearer than gunshot of the shore, and is often 100 to 200 

 miles distant therefrom. 



GROWTH OF PELAGIC SEALING. 



When I first visited Alaskan waters in 1865-60, and again in 1872, 

 pelagic sealing was almost unknown, except by Indians in canoes along 

 the North Pacific Coast and the catch was small, from 5.000 to 10,000 

 annually. In 1885 it began to assume larger proportions, for white men 

 then embarked, and in 1886 the number of vessels engaged with white 

 crews in pelagic sealing was 17; the number in 1890 was 42, and in 1891, 

 86 known craft; and probably 10 or 12 more clearing for " whaling and 

 trading," where, in fact, they intended to seal. 



The distinctive effects of open-water killing on the seal herd may be 

 better understood by examining the manner in which pelagic sealing is 

 now carried on. 



MANNER OF PELAGIC SEALING. 



A sealing schooner is seldom over 80 or under 40 tons measurement, 

 employing 15 or 20 men. The vessel sails well into the track of the 

 migrating herd of fur seals. Each boat, to the number of 7 or 8, is 

 manned with two men, one of whom rows; the other sits in the bow 

 with his shotgun or rifle and gaff- pole. The boat also contains a small 

 keg of water, some provisions, ammunition locker, skinning knives, and 

 an extra pair of oars and sail. These boats are let down over the side 

 of the vessel, and row out one after the other to the windward, taking 

 up positions just so far from each other as to be in hail of the one next 

 to them toward the schooner; in this way they can cover 6, 7, or 8 

 miles, and the furthermost may be out of sight of the schooner. 



'"Notfnruished." 



