100 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



slightly thiuuer distribution over tbe post-dorsal region, and shorter. 

 This skin is never taken; it is protitless. Average weight 25 pounds. 



Scvoi-i/earold and npicard male, from 21ay to June J of every season: 

 Fur fully developed, but very unevenly distributed, being relatively 

 scant and short over the ])osterior dorsal region, while it is twice as 

 long and verj^ coarse in the covering to the shoulders especially and 

 the neck and chest. Skins are valueless to the fur trade. Weights 45 

 to 00 pounds. 



This analysis, as above, is a brief ejutome of the entire subject: only 

 it should be added that the female skins are as finely furred as are the 

 best grades of the males when pups are not nursing: and also, that age 

 does not cause the quality of their pelage to deterioiate, which it does 

 to so marked an extent in the males. l>ut, taking them into considera- 

 tion, is entirely out of the <|uestion, and ought to be so forever. 



The fo'tal coat of the pup is composed of coarse bhu-k hair alone, 

 the underwool not at all developed. When this is shed and the new 

 coat is put on in September and October, it is furred an<l ha i red as a year- 

 ling, which I diagnose above. This pelage has, however, no commercial 

 value. 



All the skins taken by the company have been i)rime skins, in the fair 

 sense of the term. 



To this diagnosis of 1872-1874 I may add the 4-year-olds are divided 

 by the sealers hito ^^ smooth'^ 4-year-olds and '•'■ irUjged'''' 4 year-olds. 

 The "smooth" skin is the finest one in the field; the " wigged" skin is 

 way below par, and never taken unless fear of not getting the quota for 

 the season, impels the clubbing of them. These young bulls vary 

 remarkably in this matter of being " wigged," or not, at the culmination 

 of their fourth year: Just as young men at 18, vary as to having mus- 

 taches and beard, or not. 



Therefore, since the finest skins are the 3-year and " smooth " 4-year 

 olds, the standard set for killing has been kept steadily at that mark: 

 and, unless a 2-year-old was unusually well grown, it and the yearling 

 male has not been clubbed at all, to si)eak of, until 1887-88. Then it 

 became absolutely necessary to kill a large ])ortion of these smaller 

 seals, or fail to get the quota of 10(),0()() annually, since the larger seals 

 were missing (had been killed by the driving and clubbing of the pre- 

 ceding seasons). In 1889, in order to get the quota of 100,000, more 

 than half the entire catch u-ere '■'■long'" and '■'shorf ^ :3year-olds ; more 

 than 25,000 '■'long ■■ yearlings tvere talenfor the frst time in the whole 

 period dating f ram J/^70, the balance, some 20,000 only, being the prime 

 3-year and "smooth" 4-year old skins which have hitherto, prior to 

 1887, been the only ones taken , as a rule. 



Among the many bits of evidence as to the rapid elimination of the 

 holluschickie, Avhich I gathered last season (1890), one of the most self- 

 asserting is the following statement of the percentage of rejection which 

 took jdace on these killing grounds of St. Paul in 1872-1874, contrasted 

 with that which I recorded last summer. The standard for 1872-1874 

 was 3 and " smooth" 4 year old skins (7-i)ound and 12-])0und ])elts) ; and 

 it was not lowered. The standard for 1890, at the outset, was the same 

 until the 4th of July; then, the supply of those skins having practically 

 failed, the standard was dropped on that day to '■'•long''^ 2-year-olds (5^ 

 to Gi pound skins), and finally on the 18th to the 20th of July, the 

 days of the last killing permitted, the standard teas again dropped so 



' A "long" 2-ycar-old is one that is Tvell groAvu, or above tbe average size for that 

 age, i . e., li-pound f^kins^ ; a ''short" 2-ycar-old is one that isnudei' grown for its age; 

 i. e., a 5-ponnd skin. The same classification is applicable and given to the year- 

 lings. ^ 



