FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OP ALASKA. 



105 



sex haul out on land, these unfortunate seals are beguiled again very soon, or a few 

 days later, into that deadly procession to that ground from which they were driven 

 early this morning. How the siguihcance — the death of this driving — now keeps 

 rising to my mind. I had little occasion in 1872-1874 to give it thought: and, what 

 I did then was only in a suggestix e mood. 



I passed up from the killing grountls over to Tolstoi rookery, and gave the seal path 

 or road, a careful review. A few holluschickie were again hauled out under Middle 

 Hill, and a dozen, perhaps, on the Tolstoi rookery sand intersection: but, the great 

 hauling grounds of English Bay are utterly destitute of seal life at the hour of this 

 writing : and have been so ever since the season opened, with the marked exception 

 of those small S(]na<ls under Middle Hill, in the rear of Neahpahskie Kammen, and 

 the sand beach at the immediate ending of the Tolstoi breeding lines. These micro- 

 scopic areas are the only ])oints now in all that vast extent of ground over wliich in 

 1872-187-1 the holluschickie of l^nglish Kay spread their heavy S([uadrons! 



Not a holluschickie (ui Zoltoi sands to-day, and only a handful on the rocks beyond 

 and above, from which the Zoltoi drives, so called, have all been thns far. Mr. Goff 

 assures me that there was no driving from the sands hero last year — it was all from 

 these rocks above the Zoltoi blufFs. When this famous hauling ground began to 

 fail was full time for its a note of warning to have been heard. When did it failf 



From the journals of the Treasury ageut's office on St. Paul and St. 

 George islands, I have extracted the following data, whicli declares 

 plainly enough that until the season of 1885 closed, the annual quota 

 of 10(),()(»0 i)rime skins was easily taken on these islands between the 

 1st and 14th of June and the liOth of July; that in 1885, the work sud- 

 denly dropped beliind, <uid continued to lag until the total failure of 

 1890 closes this sad record: 



Table showing dates of the first and last Mllings of each official sealing season on the 



Pribilov Islands. 

 [The season of 1890 closed on the 20th of July by order of the Secretary of the Treasury.] 



a No record. b Delayed for "food drives" after 22d. 



c The catch of 75,000 was substantially taken on July 17. A few thousand skins left for food driv- 

 ing until 30th. 



d The catch of 75,000 was substantially taken by the 20th. A few thousand skiu.s left for food driv- 

 ing until the 24th. 



e The catch of 90,000 was substantially taken on the 16th of July; but a few thousand skins for food 

 driving were left over to the 28th. 



/ This season's work covers the first draft made upon the reserves. 



g Heavy draft begun this year upon the reserves. 



Official entries in the journal of the chief special agent of the Treasury Department, at St. 

 Paul Island, relative to the close of the sealing seasons on that island since 1S79, the year 

 of first hint of diminution: i 



July 14, 1879.— T>vi\e. from Zoltoi, 2,652 skins taken. 



July 1C>. 1879. — Last day of the sealing season. Drive from Middle Hill making up 

 the full ijuota for this island. The natives round up the sealing with a yell. (H. G. 

 Otis, p. ^[i.) 



' See detailed statement in Appendix p. 218. 



