ALASKA FUR SEAL. 187 



without any injury whatever to the rookeries, and leave 

 still a large surplus of bulls for the breeding-grounds ; 

 but a good margin should be left for the death-rate, 

 which must be larger among the bulls, both on land and 

 in the sea, by reason of their more adventurous and less 

 timid disposition ; and also the great labour and unceas- 

 ing vigilance which they insist upon assuming and 

 maintaining on the rookeries, three and four months 

 every year, must tend to render quite a large number 

 partially or wholly impotent for the repetition of their 

 duties. 



" In the early part of the season large bodies of the 

 young bachelor Seals do not haul up on land very far 

 from the water a few rods at the most and the men 

 are obliged to approach slyly and run quickly between 

 the dozing Seal and the surf before they take an alarm 

 and bolt into the sea ; and in this way a dozen men, 

 running down the long sea-beach of English Bay, on 

 some fine driving morning early in June, will turn back 

 from the water thousands of Seals, just as the mould- 

 board of a plough lays over a furrow of earth. As the 

 Seals are first startled they arise, and seeing men 

 between them and the water, immediately turn, lope, 

 and scramble rapidly back upon the land. The natives 

 then leisurely walk on the flanks and in the rear of the 

 drove thus secured, directing and driving them to the 

 killing-grounds. 



" The Seals, when brought upon the killing-grounds, 

 are herded there until they are rested and cool. Then 

 squads or ' pods ' of fifty to two hundred are driven out 

 from the body of the herd, surrounded, and huddled up 

 one against and over the other by the natives, who carry 

 each a long, heavy club of hard wood, with which they 

 strike the Seals down by blows on the head. A single 



