FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 103 



Eleven pods of 501 animals, and only 110 of them taken, or 80 per cent of the whole 

 number driven, rejected. 



This gives a fair average of the whole drive to-day, some 2,800 animals, since 518 

 skins only were taken. 



At this' time in 1872, only 10 to 12 per c^nt of such a drive were turned away : the 

 standard being the same to-day, as it was then. To-day all the seals taken, with the 

 rare example of a few 4-year-olds, were 3-year-olds, not one 4-year-old in twenty, 

 taken, and a remarkable absence of 2-year-old8— a few only. 



Those turned away were — 95 per cent of them at least were — "long" and "short" 

 yearlings, a few 5-year-olds, and a very few 6-year-old bulls, and a very few "short" 

 2-year-olds also. 



A small pod of holluschickie have just made their appearance, close up under the 

 bluft's at Zoltoi, 100 to 150 of them at about 11 a. m. Now, that calls to my mind 

 this question. Where have those tired seals, driven this morning, and released from 

 the pods into the Lagoon slough and from there ilirect iuto the sea — where do they 

 go? Do they haul up again? Yes, everybody says so, and I do not know anything 

 to the contrary, and much in aftirmation. Then, that being so, these seals spared 

 to-day may be driven to-morrow from Zoltoi Bluffs, to be spared again and driven 

 next week, and so on all over throngh the season. What indication, truthful one, 

 have we of what number of fresh holluschickie really arrive from this time forth, if 

 these released seals are to continually present themselves, as they do? So, as mat- 

 ters go, the steady increase daily of discarded seals, together with the fresh or new 

 arrivals, are driven day after day over and over again throughout the killing season. 



Then, in 1872-1874, this proportion of rejected or "turned away" seals from all 

 the drives up to the 1st of .July was not over 10 or 12 per cent of tiie whole drove 

 driven; now it is 80 and SIO per cent of this number — yearlings, that do require six 

 years of rest ere they are lit for rookery service. This is the status at the present 

 moment on the killing grounds right in the very height of the best hour for sealing 

 in the whole season; anil this, too, must be considered in the light of the i>ositive 

 declaration of the natives that this repeated driving renders the spared males wholly 

 unlit for rookery service — lireaks down their nerve. 



How many of these released seals this morning have been driven over that road 

 before this season f (tn the 17th, the last drive prior to this one to-day, from Middle 

 Hill and Tolstoi was made, 70 per cent of that drove was tiirned away ; and now, 

 to-day, the same drixe is made over again, after an interval of six days' rest of the 

 ground, and 80 per cent is turned away. 1 shall observe the next drive very closely 

 as it comes in from Middle Hill and Tolstoi. At this rate of increase of rejection, 

 where will the driving be in July, when the yearlings begin to haul in bodies? 



.TtiNE 24, 1890. 



A drive this morning at 5.50 from the Zoltoi bluffs of about 500, all told, and 

 another "pod" from the reef, some 750, coming. Yesterday morning at 7 o'clock, 

 there was not a single holluscheck under Zoltoi bluffs: but, in less than three hours 

 after the killing began on the Lagoon fl.ats, and the turning out there of 80 per cent 

 of all that Middle Hill drive, I observed holluschickie hauling under those bluffs at 

 Zoltoi, and a few on the sands, the first that have hauled there this year. Now, the 

 query enters my mind, Were any of these spared seals of yesterday, hauling up at 

 Zoltoi yesterday? Look at the map and observe the signiticance of the surround- 

 ings. Everybody in 1872, and everybody to-day, admits that these seals which are 

 released from the drives haul up again, are driven over again : released once more, 

 and still driven again and again throughout the season. < 



In 1872 on this St. Paul village ground a 5-year-old bull was pointed out to me by 

 Chief Booterin, which was marked by some curious pink-white mottles on its dark 

 fore flippers. Booterin said to me that that " polseccatch " ' had been driven up in 

 this way already, twice from the hauling grounds, and this made its third trip since 

 the season opened. It was not noticed in any of the subsei^ueut drives. It may 

 have gone over to St. George in disgust, or have hauled at Zapadnie, at Southwest 

 Point, Polavina, Tonkie Mees, where at any one of these resorts at that date, it 

 would have remained in peace: for, no seals were then driven from any of these 

 points; or it may have gone to Northeast Point and exhibited itself to Webster and 

 his men ; and again, this last drive above noted may have so enfeebled it as to cause 

 its subsequent death at sea. 



That these "half bulls" or "polseecatch" thus driven in 1872 should not attempt 

 then to land on the rookeries was not surprising. They simply could not, for the 

 crowds of old and virile bulls stationed there, never let them. But to-day, where 

 there are wide gaps in the water linos and above these breeding bulls, whji is it that 

 these "half bulls," in these drives to-daii, (5 and 6 year olds) do )iot ever attempt to f/o 

 thei'e now, ivhere there is no sif/n of opposition? It is remarkable. The statement 

 made by the natives in 18.34-35, and to-day, that this driving renders them unfit for 

 breeding, is the only solution. 



"Polseecatch," or half bull; name given by natives to all fur-seal raajes over 4 

 and under 7 vears of age. 



