FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 77 



water, as they are its main fulcrum and lever combined for iirogression on land. I 

 regret that the shy nature of the hair seal neA'er allowed me to study its swimming 

 motions: but, it seems to be a general point of agreement among authorities on the 

 rhocida', that all motion in water by them arises from that power which tliey exert 

 and apply with the hiud feet. So far as my observations on the hair seal go, I am 

 inclined to agree with this opinion. 



All their movements in water, whether they are traveling to some objective point 

 or are in sport, are (|uick and joyous; and nothing is more suggestive of intense 

 satisfaction and pure physical comfort than is that spectacle whicli we can see every 

 Atigust, a short distance out at sea from any rookery, where thousands of old males 

 and females are idly rolling over in the billows side by side, rubbing and scratching 

 with their fore and hind flippers which are here and there stuck up out of the water 

 by their owners like the lateen sails of the Mediterranean feluccas: or, when the hind 

 flippers are jiresented, like a "cat o' nine tails." They sleep in the water a great 

 deal more than is generally supposed, showing that they do not come on land to 

 rest — very clearly not. 



Tbe foregoing description of the hauling grounds and their occupants, 

 or the killable seals, as they existed in 1872-1874 on the seal islands of 

 Alaska, was very soberly drawn from the bright view which they then 

 presented 5 but, moderate as the simple truth of it is, it reads like a 

 romance when contrasted with the condition of these fields and life as 

 it is to-day! 



While the diminution of the area and the life on the breeding grounds 

 of St. Paul is such as to show a trifle more than one-third of its extent 

 and volume to-day compared with what existed in 1872, yet the discrep- 

 ancy between the area of the hauling grounds on this island and num- 

 ber of occupants as presented in 1872 and again in 1890, is something 

 l)Ositively startling — is almost unreal — but the truth easily asserts its 

 strange reality on the accompanying map of these hauling grounds of 

 St. Paul Island. The tint of 1872 seems an almost fabulous expanse 

 when contrasted with the microscopic shade of 1890. 



The loss is much greater here than on the rookeries, for the following 

 reasons: 



P^ver since 1879-1882 the surplus young male seal life has been sen- 

 sibly feeling the pressure of the overland death drive, and the club. 

 Harder and harder became this wretched driving to get the culled 

 quota in 1883-84. Finally, when 1886 arrived, every nook and cranny 

 on these islands that had hitherto been visited by these seals in i)eace, 

 was now daily searched out — close up, back of, and against the breeding 

 rookeries, under every cliff wall by the sea, over to Southwest Point and 

 to Otter Island, and even the little islet, Seevitchie Kammin, under the 

 lee of the Reef, was regularly hunted out. 



Every 3-year old, every 4-year old, and every irell-grown 3-year old male 

 seal has been annually taken here, during the last two years, within a day 

 or two at the latest, after it showed up on the beaches and in the rear of the 

 rooheries, prior to the 26th to Slst of July ! 



In 1872, the killable seals were i^ermitted to "haul up" in every sense 

 of the word. They hauled out far inland from the sea. In 1890, the few 

 killable seals that appeared never had time in which to "haul up" over 

 the land. They simply lauded : then, at the moment of landing, were 

 marked and hustled into a drive. Up to the 20th of July, last summer, 

 from the day of their first general hauling as a body in June, this class 

 of seals never had an oi)portunity to get wonted or accustomed to the 

 land — never were permitted to rest long enough to do so after landing. 



ORDER AND TIME OF THE HAULING OF THE HOLLUSCHICKIE. 



A careful comparison day by day of the arrival of the killable seals 

 last season (1890), with my field notes of 1872-1874, declares that the 

 holluschickie are hauling to day in the same time and order of arrival, 



