CHAP. VIII THE LAST OF THE BERING SEA 149 



equipped with a plant for making its own cans and packing 

 the fish in them, as is now done in all the complete establish- 

 ments in Alaska. 



The number of hair-seals swimming about at the mouth 

 of the river was extraordinary, all being attracted there by 

 the salmon. If it had not been for one curious circumstance I 

 should have spent a few hours trying to shoot some of them. 

 The fact I refer to is that during the spring and early 

 summer the hair-seals are very thin, and if shot immediately 

 sink to the bottom, whereas if killed in the proper season, 

 when rolling in fat and blubber, they float. It is then that 

 the natives hunt them to procure the skins for covering their 

 bidarkis and making moccasins, etc. Glyn spent many days 

 trying to bag an old seal, but a^though he killed several of 

 them stone-dead, he was unable to get the bodies of any, with 

 the exception of the young ones which were fat enough to 

 float when killed. 



While writing about the seals, it may be of interest to 

 mention that there are a number of so-called fresh-water 

 seals inhabiting Lake Iliamna on the Alaska Peninsula. 

 These seals have been described to me, by men who have 

 seen them, as being spotted like leopards, and it is claimed 

 that they remain all the year round and breed in the lake. 

 There is no reason to prevent these seals from going to the 

 sea, nor, so far as I know, any conclusive evidence that they 

 do not do so, since it is no very great distance to the Bering 

 Sea down the Kvichak River. I have heard it stated that 

 they are similar to the land-locked seals found in Lake Baikal 

 in Siberia, but again I am unable to say on what authority 

 this statement is based. 



My next project was to visit some islands situated near 

 the coast, and distant a matter of thirty-five miles from 



