66 TESTIMONY 



prevent tlie animals from liiiddling together and crowding. With 

 ^ . . proper management, tlie loss from driving is but a 



Loss from dnvine;. 7- ■• i? i x j i n i • t 



traction of 1 per cent, and nearly all are skmned 

 and the skins counted as a part of the annual quota. The animals 

 that are found unfit for killing and are allowed to return to the water 

 to be repeatedly driven later in the season, suffer, in my opinion, no 



Eeproductivenes8 i"J^"T- I li^vc sccu it Stated by thcorists with little 

 not impaired by Or uo practical experieucc, that the exertions to which 

 ''"^''°s- the seals are subjected on the drives is unusual and 



excessive; and they infer that it must injure the animal's reproductive 

 usefulness. With more extended observation and experience they 

 w^ould discover that such is not the case. The best practical illustra- 



^ . . „ tion of this fact is found on Copper Island of the Com- 



Driving on Copper , , <■ ii j j_ j 



Island. mander group where, tor the past twenty years or 



more, it has been customary to diive nearly all the 

 the seals over a very rough mountain trail across the island, and to 

 practice the same methods in the killing that we liave pursued at the 

 Pribilof Islands, with the result of constantly and healthlully in- 

 creasing the herd. That seals are occasionally injured or lost by im- 

 prox)er handling is no sufficient reason for abandoning a system of man- 

 agement which proves satisfactory when properly administered. 

 These theorists apparently find it very easy to criticise the manage- 

 ment of the seals without suggesting any way in Avliich toimju^ove it. 



Killing. 



During the seal killing season the men turn out to their work about 

 o'clock a. m. Each man in the gang is assigned by 

 mg, owe one. ^j^^ chief to liis approi^riate part of the work. If the 

 force comprises say twenty-two men, the most inefficient one will be 

 designated as "herdsman" to watch the drove and keep it as near the 

 workmen as practicable; five of the most active, athletic young men 

 are detailed as "clubbers," of whom two are called "drivers," it being 

 their duty to cut ofi" from the drove small detachments or "pods," of 

 from forty to seventy-five seals and drive them up to the killers. If the 

 drove contains a considerable number of adult bulls, or the seals are 

 tired or the day warm and humid, the "drivers" have the most labor- 

 ious part of the work. Kext, one boy is detailed as "stabber," five as 

 "fiipperers," and the remaining ten, those who are most expert in the 

 use of their knives, as "skinners." 



The clubbers are each armed with a turned hickory club, 5 feet 2 

 inches long, of best straight grained wood, like an exaggerated base- 

 ball club, and a sharp pointed hook, similar to a stevedore's cargo 

 hook, which he carries in his belt or boot leg. The stabbeis and fiip- 

 perers have double-edged knives G or 7 inches long, and the skinners 

 ten or twelve inch single-edged blades; and each nmn a small, fine- 

 grained oil stone of which he makes very frequent use, finishing the 

 sharpening process on his own palm or the seal's flipper, for the edges 

 must be as keen as razors to effectually do the work. 



If the drove contains more- than a few hundred seals, a portion of it 

 is cut oft" and brought to within about 75 or 100 feet of the place where 

 the first "pod" is to be killed. The drivers step quickly along the flanks 

 of the drove at several feet distant from it, and approach each other 

 from opposite sides at a point to detach 50 or CO animals. Tliese 

 are driven directly to the clubbers who have been previously instructed 

 by the assistant superintendent what class of seals they are to kill and 



