178 



FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



ten, join in tbe general comfort which the water certainly affords tiieni, 

 and as these females and the fresh animals of their own kind hanl ont 

 on land they join again and fall into tbis deadly procession to the land 

 from Avhence they were driven early this morning. How the siguiticanec 

 of this driving now keeps rising to my mind! 1 had little occasion m 

 1872-1874 to give it thought, and what 1 did was only in a suggestive 

 mood. 



I i)assed up from the killing grounds over to Tolstoi rookery and gave 

 the drivers' path or seal road a careful review. A few holluschickie 

 were again hauled out un(h'r Middle Hill and a dozen i)erhaps 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, with the marked exception of that small spot under 

 Middle Hill and the juxtaposition of Tolstoi rookery, wiiich are tbe 

 only points where tlie seals now haul in all that vast extent of ground 

 pattered over by them here in 1872-1874. 



Not any holluschickie on Zoltoi sands to-day, and only one or two on 

 the rocks beyond and above, from whence they have been driven thus 

 far, as Zoltoi seals. Mr. Goff assures me that there was no driving from 

 the sands here last year; it was all from these rocks above. When this 

 famous hauling grouiid began to fail was the time for the note of warn- 

 ing to have been sounded. When did it fail? 



July 1, 1890. — The following are field notes of the podding and dub 

 bing of drive made from every section of the reef, everything in back 

 of Zoltoi Bluffs, Garbotch, and the entire circuit of the reef. 



Whole number of animals driven, 1,998; number taken, 245, or 89 

 per cent rejected. Last drive from this i)lace, June 28, when 85 per 

 cent were rejected. Everything taken over a 5-pound skin and under 

 the "wigged" 4 and 5 year old pelts. I^inety per cent of the seals 

 rejected to-day were yearlings. 



This is the largest number yet driven in any one drive from this i)lace 

 thus far this season, and the catch among the smallest. The yearlings 

 driven before, plus the new arrivals, are making the ratio. 



Not a seal on the hauling grounds and sands of Lukannon Bay, and 

 none on Ketavie; about 500 yearlings at Middle Hill, and none of that 

 pod near the sand beach at Tolstoi rookery that I saw yesterday after- 

 noon. They have evidently made for Middle Hill. 



