FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 87 



driving seals in this method ever since 1885 — " had been obliged to or 

 go without the seals." ' 



The driving itself, in so far as the conduct of the natives conducting 

 the labor was concerned, was as carefully and well done as it could be. 

 Tbey avoided to the very best of their ability, any undue urging or 

 hastening of the drive overland from the rookeries; they avoided as 

 nearly as they could, under the circumstances, sweeping up pods of 

 cows and pups; (fid all that they could to make as little disturbance 

 among the breeding animals as possible. But even with all tlieir care 

 and sincere reluctance to disturb tbe rookeries, cows were repeatedly 

 taken up in their scraping drives on tlie margins of all the rookeries, 

 and their pups left Houndering behind to starve and i)erish ultimately. 



The manner to day of driving overland to the killing grounds is 

 unchanged from the method of 1872; but the regular driving from 

 every spot resorted to by the holluschickie on both islands has caused 

 the establishment of killing grounds and a salt house as early as 1879 

 at Stony Point (Toukie Mees), and a slaughter fie kl at Zapadnie, on St, 

 Paul, the skins being taken from the latter point by a bidarrah, to the 

 village (which was sent over from there every time a killing was made), 

 and they are now hauled down in wagons (mule teams) from tlie former 

 locality to the salt houses of Ht. Paul. 



In 1872-1874 the work of getting the seals on the killing grounds was 

 conducted in the following manner: 



The manner in which'the natives captured and drove the holluschickie 

 ui) from the hauling gi'ounds to the slaughter fields near the two villages 

 of St. Paul and St. George and elsewhere on the islands was then deemed 

 all right. It was in this way: At the beginning of every sealing 

 season, that is, during May and June, large bodies of young bachelor 

 seals do not haul up on land very far from the water, a few rods at the 

 most, and when these tirst arrivals are sought after, the natives, in cap- 

 turing them, are obliged to approach slily ami run quickly between the 

 dozing seals and the surf before they can take alarm and bolt into the 

 sea. In this manner a dozen Aleuts, running down the sand beach of 

 English Bay in the early morning of some June day, will turn back 

 from the water thousands of seals, just as the moldboard of a plow 

 lays over and back a furrow of earth. When the sleeping seals are first 

 startled they arise and, seeing men between them and the water, imme- 

 diately turn, lope, and scramble rapidly back up and over the laud. 

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



'The subjoined extract from my field notes under date of Sunday, July 13, 1890: 

 "Walked up to Northeast Point this morning for the purpose of platting the area 

 and position of the breeding seals on Novastoshnah and the Polaviuas; also to see 

 the natives drive at Polavina. I was on the ground at 5 a. m. and sa^v the whole 

 modus operandi at this place. The holluschickie haul close up against the sand beach 

 drop to the rookery at Polavina: then the drivers, in getting the young males, swept 

 four cows into the drove, and their pups were left behind them on the sand, bruisetl, 

 manled, and paralyzed by the stampeding dippers of the herd. To get the hollu- 

 schickie they are obliged to drive in this violent manner. Another squad of, say, 1,000, 

 mostly 2-year-olds and yearlings, was swept up by these drivers on the parade plateau, 

 and another S(|uad was driven from Little Polavina rookery, the first drive that the 

 natives have been able to find there thus far this season. Along the entire spread of 

 Lukannou, Polavina, and Northeast Point sand beach — 8 miles, nearly, of it — I did not 

 see a single young seal — only a dozen or two worthless bulls scattered here and there 

 at wide intervals. Over this extent and at this time in 1872 such a walk as mine 

 this morning would liave brought me in contact with and in sight of .50,000 to 100,000 

 holluschickie ! and the weather now simply superb hauling weather all day yesterday, 

 last night, and this morning." 



