204 BERING ISLAND. [chap. 



more easily than a flock of sheep would be ; a few men stationed 

 on the flanks and rear of the column being all that is necessary. 

 Arriving at the place of slaughter, the animals are killed in batches 

 by being knocked on the head with a leaded club some five feet in 

 length. A knife is then plunged into the heart, and the skin 

 removed without loss of time, for any delay in this operation often 

 causes the fur to rub off. The majority of the seals thus killed are 

 at the commencement of their third or fourth year of existence, 

 when the fur is at its prime. The few useless old ones, or any 

 young pups that may get mixed up with the drove, are spared, and 

 permitted to return to the sea. 



The number of skins annually taken upon each island is 

 regulated with the greatest care, and is so arranged that the 

 animals shall under no circumstances suffer any reduction in 

 number from year to year — in other words, that the breeding 

 stock shall always remain undmiinished. Keeping this object 

 carefully in view, the Alaska Company find that they can take as 

 many as 100,000 pelts every year upon the Pribylov Islands. The 

 Komandorski group is not nearly so productive. Bering Island 

 furnishes a varying number which may perhaps be averaged at 

 18,000,^ but more are obtained from Copper Island, where the 

 number usually reaches 20,000. I have no information with 

 regard to Eobben Island, but, roughly speaking, the total number of 

 skins annually sold in the English market (for they are all brought 

 to London) cannot be much less than 150,000. 



The first process of curing that the skins are subjected to is 

 simple in the extreme. They are merely packed together with salt 

 between and around them, and having been left thus for a few 

 weeks, they are ready to be tied together and tossed into the hold 

 of the steamer that takes them to San Francisco. The after 

 processes of curing, unhairing, and dyeing are too complicated 

 to give at length. Upon the care with which they are per- 

 formed depends the quality of the skin ; seldom, as is generally 



1 In 1881 16,078 were exported ; in 1882 about 19,000. 



