PUR-SEAL FISflERiES OF ALASKA. 



17l 



per cent of the rejected yearlings will require six years of rest ere they 

 are fit for rookery service. This is the status at the present moment ou 

 these killing grounds, and this also must be considered in tlie light of 

 the natives' positive declaration in 1834, tliat this repeated driving 

 renders the spared male seals wholly unfit for rookery service. 



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

 this road before this season? On the 17th instant the last drive prior 

 to this one to day, was made from Tolstoi and Middle Hill. Seventy 

 per cent of that drove was turned away; and now, to-day, the same 

 ground is driven from again, and 80 per cent is turned away. 1 shall 

 observe the rest of the drives very closely. At this rate of increase, 

 where will the driving be in July, when the yearlings then begin to 

 haul in bodies? 



June 31, 1890. — A drive this morning from Zoitoi bluffs of about 500 

 all told, and also pod from the Eeef, 750 coming. Yesterday morning 

 at 7 o'clock, there was not a single holluschak out on Zoltoi bluffs: but 

 in less than three hours after the killing began on the Lagoon tiats, and 

 the turning out from the pods there, I observed that holluschickie were 

 hauling under the bluffs at the intersection of Zoltoi sands, the first 

 that have hauled there this year. They drove from there on the 14th 

 instant last year. Now, the query can not leave my mind. Were any of 

 those spared seals pf yesterday hauling uj) soon thereafter at Zoltoi? 

 Look at the map and observe the sigiuficance of the surronndings. 

 Everybody in 1872 and everybody to day admits that these seals which 

 we released from the drives haul up again, are driven over, released, 

 and still driven again and again throughout the season. In 1872, ou 

 this St. Paul village killing ground, such a 5-year-old bull was pointed 

 out to me by Chief Booterin. 



At 7 a. m. I went down to the killing grounds and followed the 

 podding and clubbing of the entire drive brought up from the 

 Eeef (irest and Zoltoi bluffs this morning. The Zoltoi pod arrived ou 

 the ground long before the Reef pod — two hours sooner. It was made 

 up largely of polseecatchie and yearlings, the oldest bulls of the sea- 

 son, 6 and 7 year olds: and, 17 in this pod were many bulls which the 

 natives said had come over from the Lagoon killing yesterday. They 

 knew them as they pointed them out to me by certain clubbing marks. 



The following are field notes of the podding and clubbing of the 

 drive made from Zoltoi and the Reef June 24, 1890. 



[■Killing began at 7 a. m., ended by 9.30 a. m.] 



