KELATING TO ST, PAUL ISLAND. 97 



Deposition of Watson G. Allis, assistant agent of lessees on St. Paul Island. 



MANAGEMENT: HABIT: PELAGIC SEALING. 



City and county of San Francisco, ss : 



Watson C. Allis, having been dnly sworn, deposes and says : I am 30 

 years old, an American citizen residing in San Francisco, Califorria, 

 and by occupation an Agent of the Fairbanks Scale ^^^ ^^. 

 Company, engaged in selling and setting np scales. ^penence. 



In the summer of 1882, and again from the spring of 1887 to the fall 

 of 1889, I was Assistant Agent of the Alaska Commercial Company 

 upon St. Paul Island, and worked four sealing seasons in charge of 

 a gang of natives engaged in seal killing. The work Manao^ement 

 was done under the general direction of the Superin- anagemen . 

 tendent of the Sealeries, who placed a " boss," or leader, at the head of 

 each gang of men. It was the business of the "boss " 

 to divide his gang in proper proportions — into '• kill- and^^lkianers"^^^^"' 

 ers," " rippers," and " skinners." The " killers " were 

 generally the same men day after day through the season. They became 

 very exjtert in the management of the drove and the use of the seal 

 club, and very rarely made the mistake of hittting a seal that was not 

 wanted. 



The "boss" told his men in a general way what class of seals to kill, 

 and worked with them. If they had any doubt whether a certain ani- 

 mal should be knocked down they appealed to him for explicit direc 

 tions. The work thus went forward in a very systematic, orderly way. 

 The same care was exercised in cutting out the drove y, ■ • „ 

 of "bachelor" or killable seals from the borders of a "vmg. 

 rookery and in bringing them up to the killing ground. Active young 

 men were selected for this service, and placed in charge of a Chief, 

 whose orders they implicitly obeyed. 



The driving was done mostly in the night, and in dry or warm 

 weather was a slow and tedious i)rocess; yet the men were very patient 

 with their charge, moving them only at such rate as they could go 

 without becoming over-heated, and taking advantage of every stretch 

 of moist ground or pool of water to cool them off, and sometimes going 

 themselves in the water up to their necks in order to give the animals 

 a cold bath and take them out of the water and continue the journey. 

 Any representation that the seals were over-driven or ^, , . . 

 over-heated, to their subsequent injury, is drawn from 

 the imagination. Sometimes a drove would be caught upon a dry 

 stretch of ground in unusually warm weather, and a few of them perish, 

 but this did not often happen. 



In 1882 there was no scarcity of killable seals. The men drove up 

 as many every day as they could handle, and those 

 selected for killing comprised only the choicest ones. aW^slXIn^is'lj.^*"' 



There seemed to be also a large surplus of full 

 grown bulls for rookery service, and enough escaped from the slaughter 

 ground to keep the number good as the old ones passed sutHcient buiis 

 the age of usefulness. I do not believe the condition 

 of the rookeries nor the manner of driving and killing the seals at this 

 time could have been improved. It was perfect in every respect, and 

 the lessees, employes, and natives, as well as the seals, all appeared to 

 be and were, I believe, contented and happy. 

 271G— VOL u 7 



