FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OP ALASKA. 165 



their mothers, who could iieA^er answer in time, even if they ever came 

 at all. 



This podding of the pups, on and after the loth and 20th of July 

 every year, makes it simply ruinous to drive a day after that date. The 

 holluschickie now are so few in number that they do not haul out by 

 themselves as they were in the habit of doinu- when they were in abun- 

 dance, but mi± in at once alter they land with the straggling cows and 

 l)odded pups. As the season advances and this podding progresses the 

 mingling becomes still more and more effected, so that by the 24th or 

 25th of July it becomes impossible to drive from any rookery margin 

 without getting hundreds of cows in the drive of a thousand hollus- 

 chickie. Comment is needless ; the impropriety of the act asserts itself. 



July 24^ 1890.~lt was off this rookery, September 1, 1874, that the 

 first pirate or pelagic sealer began operations since the seal islands 

 became the property of the United States. This schooner, the nvant 

 courier of that destructive fleet of 1886-1890, was the Ci/gnet, of San 

 Francisco, Capt. D. Kimberley; and the San I)ie</o, of San Francisco, 

 Capt. E. P. Herendeen, was the next craft in order, having paid Otter 

 Island, near St. Paul, a visit of that doubtful character designated as 

 piracy, in 1875. 



August 1, 1890. — A careful review of this rookery to-day, disclosed 

 some 1,200 holluschickie: half of that number apart from the cows, the 

 other half commingled with the podded females and their young. 

 Nine-tenths of this squad of holluschickie were yearlings. 



1 observed, not only here but on all the other rookeries, a strange 

 absence of the proportion of 2-year olds which should show up now. 

 The fact that 25,000, possibly 30,000, yearlings were killed last year 

 after the 13th of July, may account for this. It simijly shows, however, 

 what an empty shell now remains. 



The condition of these breeding seals at Zapadnie, barring their 

 scant numbers, is good, physically. The pups and cows have podded 

 out in some places nearly 1,000 feet back, up and away from the sea. 

 These pups on the uplands so far back will not get into the water much 

 earlier than the 1st of next month: while a few on the beach njargiu 

 are now swimming and learning to swim. 



The heavy surf of yesterday and the day preceding has not injured 

 any pups here, as far as I can observe. They are all safely hauled up 

 out of its fury. When, however, they fairly get under way in swim- 

 ming at first, then such a storm catches thousands of them unawares 

 and destroys them. 



ON THE HAULING GROUNDS— ST. PAUL ISLAND. 



May 21, 1890. — The first drive for food of the season was made this 

 morning on Seevitchie Kammen by the natives, and about 300 hollus- 

 chickie were taken. In 1872, on May 14, I made the following note: 

 " First drive of the season made to-day. Some 200 holluschickie from 

 the point on or near the Eeef, They drove slowly, but well. Strong- 

 northwest wind, and dry." Substantially the same time in arriviug 

 now as In 1872. 



June 11, 1890. — The first regular business drive of the season was 

 made this morning at 3 a. m. from the crest on the Eeef rookery. The 

 natives made this drive of about 1,300 holluschickie, half of it made up 

 of mostly 3-year olds, some "long" 2 and a few 4 year olds, the balance 

 (a large proportion of it) "long" yearlings and "short "2-year-olds, The 

 drive was made from the south slope of the crest whej^e, about 150 feet 



