90 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



PROSTRATION OF FUR SEALS BY HEAT. 



This prostration from exertion will always happen, no matter how 

 carefully they are driven ; and in the long:er drives, such as 2i and 5 

 miles from Zai)adnie on the west, or from Polaviua on the north, to the 

 village at St. Paul, as much as 3 or 4 per cent of the whole drive will 

 be thus dropped on the road. Hence I felt and feel satisfied, from my 

 observation and close attention to this feature, that a considerable num- 

 ber of those that are thus rejected from the drove and are able to rally 

 and return to the water die subseijueutly from internal injuries sustained 

 on the trip, superinduced by this overexertion. I therefore think it 

 highly improper and impolitic to extend the drives of the holluschickie 

 over any distance on St. Paul Island exceeding a mile, or a mile and a 

 half. It is better for all parties concerned, and the business, too, that 

 salt houses be erected and killing grounds established contiguous to all 

 of the great hauling grounds, 2 miles distant from the village on St. 

 Paul Island, should the business ever be developed above the present 

 limit, or should the exigencies of the future require a quota from all 

 these places in order to make up the 100,000 which may be lawfully 

 taken, I used this language in 1874 and repeat it to-day. 



ABUNDANT SUPPLY OF HOLLUSCHICKIE. 



As matters were in 1874, 100,000 seals alone on St. Paul were taken 

 and skinned in less than forty working days within a radius of I^ miles 

 from the village, and from the salt house at Northeast Point. Hence 

 the driving, with the excei)tion of two experimental droves which I 

 witnessed in 1872, has never been made from longer distances than 

 Tolstoi to the eastward, Lukannon to the northward, and Zoltoi to the 

 southward of the killing grounds at St. Paul village, and I then said 

 should, however, an abnormal season recur, in which the larger propor- 

 tion of days during the right period for taking the skins be warmish 

 and dry, it might be necessary, in order to get even 75,000 seals within 

 the twenty-eight or thirty days of their prime condition, for drives to be 

 made from the other great hauling grounds to the westward and north- 

 ward, which are now, and have been for the last ten years, entirely unno- 

 ticed by the sealers. 



KILLING THE SEALS. 



The seals, when finally driven upon those flats between the East 

 landing and the village, and almost under tlie windows of the dwell- 

 ings, were in 1872, and are herded there now, until cool and rested. The 

 drives are usually made very early in the morning, at the first breaking 

 of day, which is half past 1 or 2 o'clock of June and July in these 

 latitudes. 



They arrive and cool off on the slaughtering grounds, so that by 6 or 

 7 o'clock, after breakfast, the able-bodied male population turn out from 

 the village and go down to engage in the work of slaughter. The men 

 are dressed in their ordinary working garb of thick flannel shirts, stout 

 cassimere or canvas pants, over which the "tarbossa" boots are drawn. 

 If it rains they wear their "kamlaikas," made of the intestines and 

 throats of the sea lion and fur seal. Thus dressed they are each armed 

 with a club, a stout oaken or hickory bludgeon, which has been made 

 particularly for the purpose at New London, Conn., and imported here 

 for this especial service. These sealing clubs are about 5 or 6 feet in 

 length, 3 inches in diameter at their heads, and the thickness of a man's 



