172 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



Sevenly-onc per cent of this drive >ras rejected. Every '■) and " smooth" 

 4-yeai' old taken, and every "long" 2-year-old. ISTothing under or over 

 that grade. 



The seals released this morning were exclusi/ely yearlings, "short" 

 2year olds, and the 5 and G year old half bulls or i)olseecatchie. No 

 "long" 2-year old escaped, and so, therefore, many 5A and pound 

 skins will ai)pear in this catch. There was a notable absence, how- 

 ever of 2 year-olds in proportion, and the bulk of the catch was 3 year- 

 olds, as was yesterday's killing with a very large number of 4-year-olds 

 in proportion to the whole number of skins taken. 



In the afternoon I took a survey of Lukannon Bay and its hauling 

 grounds. Not a seal on the beach, except a half dozen half bulls 

 abreast of the Volcanic ridge. Thence over to Tolstoi sand dunes, 

 where I saw about (iOO or TOO yearlings, conspicuous by their white 

 bellies, and a few killable seals sandwiched in another small i)od under 

 Middle Hill. 



The only record which I can find of any driving upon land to slaugh- 

 ter other seals than the fur seal is the curious relation in Charlevoix's 

 account of his voyage to North America {Journal of a Voyage to North 

 America, vol. i, 17(il, ])p. 222-220). Speaking of the seals of the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence, under date of March 21, 1721, at the close of a rather 

 lengthy but quaint description of them — "sea wolves," as Charlevoix 

 calls the phoea' — he says: "Lastly, I have been told that a sailor 

 having one day surprised a vast herd of them ashore, drove them 

 before him to his lodgings with a switch, as he would have done a tlock 

 of sheep, and that he with his comrades killed to the number of 900 

 of them. Sit fides penes autorem.^'' This is the only authenticated (?) 

 record which I can discover of any driving of the Phoeidw to land 

 killing grounds away from ice tloes or the sea margin. 



The sea elephant, Macrorhinns, is driven, it is true, but only a few 

 yards inland from the subtroi>ical beaches of California or the for- 

 bidding shores of Antarctic Kerguelen and Herd's islands. Like the 

 the hair seals, they are usually knocked down wherever they are sur- 

 prised by the sealers. I think the seals above alluded to as di'iven by 

 Charlevoix, were Phoca tritnliva or fatida. 



I should remark that the driving of the seals has been very carefully 

 done, no extia rushing and smothering of the herd, as was freipiently 

 done in 1872. Mr. Goff began with a sharp admonition and it has been 

 scrupulously observed thus far by the natives. This dropping of 

 exhausted seals along the road in 1872-1874 was a matter which then 

 aroused both Lieutenant Maynard and myself in 1874, The agent of 

 the Alaska Commercial Company then i)iomised to correct the evil. 

 But it will always require the eye of the Treasury agent to rest upon 

 this feature of the business since he is the executive head in this 

 small community, unique and isolated, and he should be. 



Jitne 25, 1890. — An inspection of Zoltoi Beach this morning, does not 

 show a single seal upon this famous hauling ground. Yesterday morn- 

 ing, a small drive ot considerably less than 500 was taken from the rocky 

 eminence just to the southward of this spot, being also the tirst drive 

 made from there this year. When driven in such fine sealing weather 

 as that now prevailing, in 1872-1874, these sands in less than an hour 

 afterwards would begin to fill up again with fresh arrivals from the sea: 

 and often, after the lapse of seven or eight hours after the first drive 

 had been made, to meet an additional demand, another drive would 

 be ordered from the same spot and duly driven. I did not see this 

 morning a single seal sporting in the waters of Zoltoi Bay, and the only 



