124 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



LOCATING THE HAULING GROUNDS. 



The hauling grounds are located on the low, free beaches not occu- 

 pied by the breeding grounds, or else inland behind the harems. In 

 ;he latter case, lanes are left between the harems by the old bulls for 

 ,he bachelors to pass to and from the sea. In 1872 I noticed one of 

 these lanes on the Polavina rookery and the one at Tolstoi and the 

 ;wo at the Eeef rookery, but when I returned in 1874 the lanes had 

 Deen entirely closed up. But the other locations on unoccupied beaches 

 are the most favored hauling grounds. The bachelors when on land 

 can be readily separated into their several classes as to age by the 

 oolor of their coats and sizes. 



DRIVING THE SEALS TO THE KILLING GROUNDS. 



Only the bachelor seals of from 2 to 5 years of age have been killed 

 by the lessees of the islands. No female has been or is allowed to be 

 taken; a few have been killed by accident. A number of seals are 

 driven from the hauling grounds to the killing grounds after being 

 separated from the rest by the natives. They can be driven safely at 

 the speed of half a mile an hour, providing the weather is reasonably 

 wet and cold. On arriving at the killing grounds they are killed with 

 clubs and their skins removed. During my visit to the islands, in 1890, 

 I was led to the conclusion that some unnecessary loss of life had been 

 occasioned by excessive driving, and that the methods of culling the 

 herd must be abolished; but this loss, which is bad enough, bears no 

 comparison in its injurious effect upon the herd to that loss by reason 

 of indiscriminate slaughter which is inflicted upon the fur-seal herd 

 unchecked by pelagic hunting. Of this I will speak later. Besides, 

 the injurious effect of excessive driving can be easily corrected. It 

 was stopped in 1890, and has been still further restricted since on the 

 islands. 



WEIGHT AND SIZE OF SEALS. 



A bull when full grown weighs between 400 and 500 pounds, some- 

 times even 600, and measures from 6 to 7 feet in length. The female 

 weighs from 70 to 120 pounds, and measures 4 to 4J feet in length. 

 The bachelors, over 1 year and up to 5 years old, weigh from 50 to 200 

 pounds, and are from 4 to 5J or 6 feet in length. 



DEPARTURE OF THE SEALS. 



About the 1st of November the great mass of the cows and bachelors 

 begin to depart, and the pups following from the islands, going south- 

 ward, the old bulls having nearly all preceded them in September and 

 October. Some, however, remain as long as the ice and snow will per- 

 mit, and when the winters are mild and little ice is about the islands, 

 which occasionally occurs, fur seals are seen there until late in January 

 in small numbers, a few hundreds at the most. 



THE MIGRATION OF THE PRIBILOF SEAL HERD. 



To this, my affidavit, I append a track chart 1 of the path traveled by 

 the Pribilof fur-seal herd in the North Pacific Ocean from the time it 

 leaves the seal islands and Bering Sea in the late autumn until it 

 reenters Bering Sea in June or 4th to 10th of July following. From 

 records kept at Unalaska and Umnak for the last eighty years, and 

 from other information, I believe it to be a fact, well settled, that the 



" Not furnished." 



