346 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



and they are suited then at anj' time to be taken up and rolled into 

 bundles of two skins to the package, with the hairy side out, tightly 

 corded, ready for shipment from the islands. 



The average weight of a two-year-old skin is five and one-half- 

 pounds ; of a three-year-old skin, seven pounds, and of a four-year- 

 old skin, twelve pounds, so that, as the major portion of the catch 

 is two or three year olds, these bundles of two skins each have a 

 general weight of from twelve to fifteen pounds. In this form 

 they go into the hold of the company's steamer at St. Paul, and are 

 counted out from it in San Francisco. Then they are either at 

 once shijDped to London by the Isthmus of Panama in the same 

 shape, only packed up in large hogsheads of from twenty to forty 

 bundles to the package, or expressed by railroad, via New York, to 

 a similar destination. 



The work of bundling the skins is not usually commenced by 

 the natives until the close of the last week's sealing ; or, in other 

 words, those skins which they first took, three weeks ago, are now 

 so pickled by the salt in which they have been lying ever since, as 

 to render them eligible for this operation and immediate shipment. 

 The moisture of the air dissolves and destroys a very large quantity 

 of that saline preservative which the company brings up annually 

 in the form of rock-salt, principally obtained at Carmen Island, 

 Lower California. 



The Alaska Commercial Company, by the jDrovisions of law 

 under which they enjoy their franchise, are permitted to take one 

 hundred thousand male seals annually, and no more, from the 

 Pribylov Islands. This the}' do in June and July of every year. 

 After that season the skins rapidly grow worthless, as the animals 

 enter into shedding, and, if taken, would not pay for transportation 

 and the tax. 



The bundled skins are carried from the salt-houses to the 

 beach, when an order for shipment is given, pitched into a bidarrah, 

 one by one, and rapidly stowed ; seven hundred to twelve hundred 

 bundles make an average single load ; then, when alongside the 

 steamer, they are again tossed up from the lighter and onto her 

 deck, whence they are stowed in the hold.* 



* The shallow depths of Bering Sea give rise to a very bad surf, and though 

 none of the natives can swim, as far as I could learn, yet they are quite 

 creditable surfmen, and work the heavy "baidar " in and out from the land- 

 ing adroitly and circumspectly. They put a sentinel upon the bluffs over Nali 



