470 HISTORY AND METHODS OP THE FISHERIES. 



dry and warmer than usual, three weeks, and even longer, will elapse before the circuit is tra- 

 versed. 



When the drive is started the natives gather around the herd on all sides, save the opening 

 which they leave pointing to the direction in which they desire the animals to travel ; and in this 

 manner they escort and urge the "seevitchie" on to their final resting and slaughter near the vil- 

 lage. The young lions and the females being much lighter than the males, less laden with fat or 

 blubber, take the lead, for they travel twice and thrice as easy and as fast as the old males, 

 which, by reason of their immense avoirdupois, are incapable of moving ahead more than a few rods 

 at a time, when they are completely checked by sheer loss of breath, though the vanguard of the 

 females allures them strongly on; but, when an old sea-lion feels his wind coming short, he is 

 sure to stop, sullenly and surlily turning upon the drivers, not to move again until his lungs are 

 clear. 



In this method and manner of driving, the natives stretch the herd out in extended file, or, 

 as a caravan, over the line of march, and, as the old bulls pause to savagely survey the field and 

 catch their breath, showing their wicked teeth, the drivers have to exercise every art and all their 

 ingenuity in arousing them to fresh efforts. This they do by clapping boards and bones together, 

 firing fusees, and waving flags ; and, of late, and best of all, the blue gingham umbrella repeatedly 

 opened and closed in the face of an old bull has been a more effective starter than all the other 

 known artifices or savage expedients of the natives. Is it not an amusing coincidence that while 

 lions are hunted under umbrellas in Africa, their marine namesakes are chased with them in 

 Alaska?* 



ARRIVAL OF THE DRIVE AT THE VILLAGE. The procession of sea lions managed in this 

 strange manner day and night for the natives never let up is finally brought to rest within a 

 stone's throw of the village, which has pleasurably anticipated for days and for weeks its arrival, 

 and rejoices in its appearance. The men get out their old rifles and large sea-lion lances, and 

 sharpen their knives, while the women look well to their oil-pouches, and repair to the field of 

 slaughter with meat-baskets on their heads. 



* The curious behavior of the sea-lions in the Big lake, when they are en route and driven from Novastoshnah to 

 the village, deserves mention. After the drove gets over the sand-dunes and beach between Webster's house and the 

 extreme northeastern head of the lake, a halt is called and the drove "penned" on the bank there; then, when the 

 sea-lions are well rested, they are started up, and go pell-mell into the water; two natives, in a bidarka, keep them from 

 turning out from the shore into the broad bosom of Meesulkmahuee, while another bidarka paddles in their rear and 

 follows their swift passage right down the eastern shore. In this method of procedure the drive carries itself nearly 

 two miles by water in less than twenty minutes from the time the sea-lions are first turned in, at the north end, to the 

 moment when they are driven out at the southeastern elbow of the Big pond. The uhallowness of the water hero 

 accounts probably for the strange failure of the sea-lions to regain their liberty, and so retards their swimming as to 

 enable the bidarka, with two men, to keep abreast of their leaders easily, as they plunge ahead ; and "as one goes so go 

 all sheep," it is not necessary to pay attention to those which straggle behind in the wake ; they are stirred up by the 

 second bidarka, and none make the least attempt to diverge from the track which the swifter mark out in advance; 

 if they did, they could escape "scot-free" in any one of the twenty minutes of this aquatic passage. 



By consulting the map of Saint Paul, it will be observed that in a direct line between the village and Northeast 

 Poiiit there are quite a number of small lakes, including this large one of Meesulkmahnee ; into all of these ponds the 

 sea-lion drove is successfully driven. This interposition of fresh water at such frequent intervals serves to shorten tlio 

 time of the journey fully ten days in warmish weather, and at least four or five under the best of climatic conditions. 



This track between Webster's house and the village killing-grouuds is strewn with the bones of Eumetopias. They 

 will drop in their tracks, now and then, even when carefully driven, from cerebral or spinal congestion principally ; 

 and when they are hurried the mortality en route is very great. The natives, when driving them keep them going day 

 and night alike, but give them frequent resting spells after every spurt ahead. The old bulls flounder along for a hun- 

 dred yards or so, then suddenly halt to regain breath, five or ten minutes being allowed them ; then they are stirred 

 up again, and so on, hour after hour, until the tedious Oransit is completed. 



The youuger sea-lions, and the cows which are in the drove, carry themselves easily far ahead of the bulls, and 

 being thus always in the van, serve unconsciously to stimulate and coax the heavy males to travel. Otherwise, I do 

 not believe that a band of old bulls, exclusively, conld bo driven down over this long n>:id surrrssfiilly. 



