THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



77 



tliey become " pickled ", and tliey are suited then at any 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. 



Aterage weight op baw skins.— The average weight of a two-year-old skin Is 5J pounds; of a three- 

 year-old skin, 7 pounds; and, of a four-j^ear-old skin, 12 pounds; so that as the major portion of the catch is two or 

 three year-olds, these bundles of two skins each have an average weight of from 12 to 15 pounds. In this shape 

 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 shi])ped to London by the Isthmus of Panama in the same shape, only packed up in large 

 hogsheads of from 20 to 40 bundles to the package, or expressed by railroad, via New York, to the same destination. 



Packing skins for shipment.— 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 

 wliich 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 shii)ment. The moisture of the air dissolves 

 and destroys a very large quantity of the saline preservative which the 

 company brings up annually in the form of rock-salt, principally obtained 

 at Carmen island, Lower California. 



Law protecting the seals. — The Alaska Commercial Company, 

 by the provisions of law under which they enjoy their franchise, are Abnnaiooftwoskins. 



])ermitted to take 100,000 male seals annually, and no more, from the Pribylov islands. This they 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. These natives are paid 40 cents a skin for the labor, and 

 they keep a close account of the progress of the work every day ; they do so, as it is all done by them, and they 

 know within .50 skins, one way or the other, when the whole number have been secured each season. This is the 

 only occupation of the 398 people here, and they naturally look well after it. The interest and close attention paid 

 by these natives, on both islands, to the "holluschickie" and this business, was both gratifying and instructive to 

 me during my residence there. 



Erroneous popular ideas. — The common or popular notion in regard to seal-skins is, that they are worn 

 by those animals just as they appear when offered for sale; that the fur-seal swims about, exposing the same soft 



adjacent to the killiug-groimrls ; It was the accumulation of such air-dried skins from the Pribylov islands, at Sitka, which rotted so in 

 1803, that "750,000 of them were cut up, or thrown out into the sea", completely destroyed. Had they been treated as they now are, such 

 a calamity and hideous waste could not have occurred. 



The method of air-dryiug which the old settlers employed, is well portrayed by the practice of the natives now, who treat a few 

 hundred sea-lion skius to the process every fall ; preparing them thus for shipment to Oonalashka, where they are used by brother Aleuts 

 in covering their bidarkies or kyacks. 



The natives, in speaking to me of this matter, said that whenever the weather was rough and the wind blowing hard, these air-dried 

 seal-skins, as they were tossed from the bidarrah to the ship's deck, numbers of them would frequently turn in the wind and fly clean 

 over the vessel into the water beyond, where they were lost. 



Under the old order of affairs, prior to the present management, the skins were packed up and carried on the backs of the boys and 

 girls, women and old men, to the salt-housi-s, or drying-frames. When I first arrived, season of 1872, a slight variation was made in this 

 respect, by breaking a small Siberian bull into harness and hitching it to a cart, in which the pelts were hauled. Before the cart was 

 adjusted, however, and the " bulk" taught to pull, it was led out to the killing-grounds, by a ring in its nose, and literally covered with 

 the green seal-hides, which were thus packed to the keuches. The natives were delighted with even this partial assistance; but now they 

 have no further concern about it at all, for several mules and carts render prompt and ample service. They were introduced here, first, in 

 1874. The Russian- American Company and also the Alaska Commercial Company have brought up three or four horses to St. Paul, 

 but they have beeu unfortunate iu losing them all soou after landing, the voyage and the climate combined being inimical to equine 

 health ; but the mules of the present order of affairs have been successful in their transportation to and residence on the Pribylov islands. 

 One, the first of these horses just referred to, perhaps did not have a fair chance for its life. It was saddled one morning, and several 

 camp-kettles, coft'ee-pots, etc., slung on the crupper for the use of the Russian agent, who was going up to Northeast point for a week or 

 ten days' visit. He got into the saddle, and while en. route, near Polavina, a kettle or pot broke loose behind, the alarmed horse kicked its 

 rider promptly off, and disappeared on a full run, in the fog, going toward the bogs of Kammiuista, where its lifeless and fox gnawed 

 body was found several days afterward. 



' 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 snrfmeu, .and work the heavy "baidar" in and out from the landing adroitly and circumspectly. They put a 

 sentinel upon the bluffs over Nah Speel, and go and come between the rollers as he signals. They arc not graceful oarsmen under any 

 circumstances, but can pull heartily and coolly together when in a pinch. The apparent ease and unconcern with which they handled 

 their bidarrah here in the "baroon" during the fall of 1839, so emboldened three or four sailors of the United States Revenue Marine 

 cutter "Lincoln" that they lost their lives iu that surf through sheer carelessness. The "gig" in which they were coming ashore 

 "broached to" in the breakers just outside of the cove, and their lifeless forms were soon after thrown up by the merciless waves on the 

 Lagoon rookery. Three graves of these men are plainly marked on the slope of the Black Bluffs. 



There is a false air of listlessuess and gentleness about an open sea, or roadstead roller, that is very apt to deceive even watermen of 

 good understanding. The crushing, overwhelming power with which an ordinary breaker will hurl a large ship's boat on rocks awash, 

 must be personally experienced ere it is half appreciated. 



The bundled skins are carried from the salt-houses to the baidar, when the ordei for shipment is given, and pitched into that lighter 

 one by one, to be rapidly stowed; 700 to 1,200 bundles make the average single load; then, when alongside the steamer, they are again 

 tossed up, aud on her deck, from whence they are stowed in the hold. 



