FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 9 



upon these hitherto untouclied souict'S of supply for the rookeries, in 

 order to get the customary annual quota — at that time that fact, that 

 glaring change from the prosperous and healthy precedent and record of 

 1870-1881, should have been— it was — ami)le warning of danger ahead. 

 It seems, however, to have been entirely ignored, to have fallen upon 

 inattentive or incapable minds; for, not until the report for 1889 from 

 the agent of the Government in charge, who went up in the spring of 

 that year for his first season of service and experience — not until his 

 rei)ort came down to the Treasury Department, had there been the 

 slightest intimation in the annual declarations of the ofticers of the 

 Government of the leavSt diminution or decrease of seal life on these 

 islands since my work of 1874 was finished and given to tlie world! 



On the contrary, strange as it may seem, all the Treasury agents 

 since 1879 have, whenever they have sj»oken at all, each vied with the 

 other in their laudations of the "splendid condition of the rookeries," 

 "fully up to their best standard," etc, and one report in 18S7 declares 

 a vast increase over the large figures which I published in 1872-1874! 

 which is again reiterated by the same officer in 1888. 



But, how could these gentlemen reconcile their statements with that 

 remarkable evidence of tlie decrease in supply of young males from 

 the records made and before them — staring them in the face — of 1872- 

 1874? When they saw and daily recorded the fact that sealing gangs 

 were being daily sent out from the village, miles and miles away to 

 hitherto undisturbed fields, for killable seals — the regular, customary 

 hauling grounds then at the point of exhaustion from which an abund- 

 ant supply had been easily secured during the last thirty years, and 

 grass growing all over the hauling grounds of 1872 — how, indeed, did 

 that fact escape their attention? It did, however; it was utterly 

 ignored. 



I can see now, in the light of the record of the work of sixteen con- 

 secutive years of sealing, very clearly one or two points which were 

 wholly invisible to my sight in 1872-1874. I can now see what that 

 effect of driving overland is ui)on the physical well being of a normal 

 fur seal : and, from that sight feel warranted in taking the following 

 ground : 



The least reflection will declare to an observer that while a fur seal 

 moves easier on land and freer than any or all other seals, yet, at the 

 same time, it is an unusual and laborious effort, even when it is volun- 

 tary; therefore, when thousands of young male seals are suddenly 

 aroused to their utmost power of land locomotion over rough, sharp 

 rocks, rolling clinker stones, deep, loose sand, mossy tussocks, and 

 other equally severe impedimentia, they, in their fright, exert them- 

 selves violently, crowd in confused sweltering heaps, one upon the 

 other, so that many are often smothered to death; and, in this man- 

 ner of most extraordinary effort, to be urged along over stretches of 

 unbroken miles, they are obliged to use muscles and nerves that nature 

 never intended them to use, and which are not fitted for the action. 



This prolonged, sudden, and unusual effort, unnatural and violent 

 strain, must leave a lasting mark upon the i>hysical condition of every 

 seal thus driven and then sulfered to escape from the clubbed pods or 

 the killing grounds. They are alternately heated to the point of suffo- 

 cation, gasping, panting, allowed to cool down at intervals, then ab- 

 ruptly started upon the road for a fresh renewal of this heating as they 

 lunge, shamble, and creep along. When they arrive on the killing 

 grounds, after four or five hours of this distressing eftbrt on their part, 

 they are then suddenly cooled off for the last time prior to the final 



