74 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



seals occupy. Waiuleriufij aimlessly and going back, in some instancos, notably at 

 English Bay, from one-half to a whole mile inland, not traveling in desultory tiles 

 along winding, straggling paths, but sweeping in solid platoons, they obliterate 

 every spear of grass and rub down nearly every hummock in their way. 



UEFINITIOX OK " HOLLUSCHICKIE." 



All the male seals, above 6 years of age, and under, are compelled to herd apart by 

 themselves and away from the breeding grounds, in many cases far away, the large 

 hauling grounds at Southwest Point being about 2 miles from the nearest rookery. 

 This class of seals is termed "hoUuschickie'' or the "bachelor" seals by the peo- 

 ])le, a most fitting and expressive appellation. 



The seals of this great subdivision are those with which the natives on the Pribilov 

 group are the most familiar; naturally and especially so, since they are the only 

 ones, with the excei)tion of a few thousand ]>ups and occasionally an old bull or two 

 taken late in the fall for food and skins, which are driven up to tiie killing grounds 

 at the village for slaughter. The reasons for this exclusive attention to the bachelors 

 are most cogent, and will be given hereafter when the business is discussed. 



LOCATING THE HAULIXG GROUNDS. — PATHS THROUGH THE ROOKERIES. 



Since the holluschickie are not permitted by their own kind to land on the rook- 

 eries and stop there, they have the choice of two methods of locating, one of which 

 allows them to rest in the rear of the rookeries and the other on the free beaches. 

 The most notable illustration of the former can be witnessed on Reef Point, where a 

 I)ath\vay is left for their ingress and egress through a rookery^a path left by common 

 consint, as it were, between the harems. On these trails of passage they come and 

 go in steady files all day and all night during the season, unmolested by the jealous 

 bulls which guard the seraglios on either side as they travel. All peace and comfort 

 to the young seal if he minds his business and keeps straight on up or down, 

 without stopping to nose about right or left; all woe and desolation to him, how- 

 ever, if he does not, for in that event he will be literally torn in bloody griping, from 

 limb to limb, by the vigilant old " see-catchie." 



Since the two and three year <dd holluschickie come up in small squads with the 

 first bulls in thespring, or a few days later, such common highways as those between 

 the rookery ground and the sea are traveled over before the arrival of the cows and 

 get well defined. A passage for the bachelors, which I took much pleasure in 

 observing day after day at Polavina, another at Tolstoi, and two on the reef, in 

 1872, were entirely closed up hv the "see-catchie" and obliterated when I again 

 searched for them in 1874. Similar passages existed, however, on several of the 

 large rookeries of St. Paul. ( )ne of those at Tolstoi exhibits this feature very finely, 

 for here the hauling ground extends around from English Bay, and lies up back of 

 the Tolstoi rookery, over a Hat and rolling summit, from 100 to 120 feet above the 

 sea level. The young males and yearlings of both sexes come through and between 

 the harems at the height of the breeding season on two of these narrow pathways, 

 and before reaching the ground above are obliged to climb up an almost abrupt 

 bluft', which they do by following and struggling in the water runs and washes that 

 are worn into its face. As this is a large hauling ground on which, every- favorable 

 day during the season, 15,000 or 20,000 commonly rest, the sight of skillful seal 

 climbing can be witnessed here at any time during that period, and the sight of such 

 climbing as this of Tolstoi is exceedingly novel and interesting. Why, verily^, they^ 

 ascend over and u])on ])laces where an ordinary man might, at first sight, with great 

 positiveness say that it was utterly impossible for him to climb. 



HAULING GROUNDS ON THE BEACHES. 



The other method of coming ashore, however, is the one most followed and favored. 

 In this case they avoid the rookeries altogether and repair to the unoccupied beaches 

 between them, and tlicn extend themselves out all the way back from the sea, as far 

 from the water in some cases as a quarter and oven half of a mile. I stood on the 

 Tolstoi sand dunes one afternoon, toward the middle of .July, haviug under my eyes, 

 in a straightforward sweep over from my feet to Zajiadnie, 1,500,000 seals spread out 

 on those hauling grounds. Of these I estimated that fully one-half at that time 

 were pups, yearlings, and holluschickie. The rookeries across the bay, though 

 plainly in sight, were so crowded that they looked exactly as I have seen surfaces 

 appear upon which bees had swarmed in ol)e(licnce to that din and racket made by 

 the watcliful apiarian when he desires to hive the restless honey makers. 



The great majority of yearlings and holluschickie are annually hauled out and 

 packed thickly over the sand beach and ui)laud hauling grounds which lay between 



