366 



OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



effort being made by the " seevitchie " to break out of their flimsy 

 bonds, and it was passed by these animals, not in stupid quiescence, 

 but in alert watchfulness, roaring, writhing, twisting, turning one 

 upon and over the other. 



By this method of procedure, after the lapse usually of two or 

 three weeks, a succession of favorable nights will have occurred : 

 then the natives secure their full quota, which, as I have said before, 

 is expressed by a herd of two or three hundred of these animals. 



When that comple- 

 ment is filled, the natives 

 prepare to drive their 

 herd back to the village 

 over the grassy and mos- 

 sy uplands and interven- 

 ing stretches of sand- 

 dune tracts, fully eleven 

 miles : preferring thus to 

 take the trouble of prod- 

 ding such clumsy brutes, 

 wayward and obstinate as 

 they are, rather than to 

 pack their heavy hides in and out of boats, making in this way each 

 sea-lion carry its own skin and blubber down to the doors of their 

 houses in the village. If the weather is normally wet and cold, this 

 drive or caravan of sea-lions can be driven to its point of destina- 

 tion in five or six days ; but should it be dry and warmer than usual, 

 three weeks, and even longer, will elapse before the circuit is trav- 

 ersed. 



When the drive is started, the natives gather around the herd 

 on all sides, save an opening which they leave pointing to that 



The Sea-lion Caravan. 



[Natives driving a drove over the plain of Poiavina, en 

 route from Northeast Point to St. Paul.} 



