RELATING TO ST. PAUL ISLAND 129 



I have been told that there are persons who claim we are not careful 

 in driving seals and that we kill them regardless of sex. ^^ . .^^ ^ 

 These statements are not true. I have taken my tnrn "^'i"g- 

 at driving seals from the hauling to the killing grounds every year 

 since 1870 and 1 know the driving is very carefully done. When 1 first 

 came here seals used to be driven from Half way Point to the village, a 

 distance of about six miles ; and from Zapadnie to the village a distance 

 of nearly five miles. Wet, or very dan^p, cool weather was chosen for 

 such drives, and we started the drive at about six o'clock at night and 

 driving all night reached the village at from six to eight o'clock next 

 morning. 



Half a mile in one hour was about the rate of speed on such drives 

 in favorable weather and I do not know of any drives of over two miles 

 where we ever went at a greater speed. 



All long drives were stopped in 1879 when the Alaska Commercial 

 Company made a killhig ground and built a salt house ^ , ^, , 



.,, ^ ,*' .-, £• TT i^- Ti • i. T 1 1 -ii- Improved iiutliods. 



withm two miles or Hallway Fomt; and made a killing 



ground within a mile of Zapadnie. Since these changes were made no 



seals have been driven on St. Paul Island over two miles to a killing 



ground. 



The seals are never driven at a greater speed than one mile in three 

 hours; and the men who do the driving have to relieve each other on 

 the road because they travel so slowly they get very cold. 



In a very large drive a small seal may be smothered, but that does not 

 injure the skin, which is taken and salted and counted 

 to the lessees; and the greatest number I ever saw die i^g®'^^^ ^^^^'^'^ "' '^"^' 

 on the drive was twenty out of a drive of about nine 

 th(nisand seals, and the twenty skins were good and were accepted 

 as "• first-class." The bull seal arrives at the island 

 early in May, and takes his place on the breeding 

 rookery, and he stays there until August or September without food. 

 About tlie middle of May the young males begin to haul 

 out but are driven off by the bulls who would tear ^^-'^''ii'^iors. 

 them to pieces if they went on the breeding rookeries. Consequently 

 the bachelors haul out by themselves and are easily surrounded and 

 driven into the killing ground without distuibing the breeding rookery. 



The cows begin to haul out in June and take their places on the 

 ])reeding rookeries beside the bulls, where the young 

 ](ups are born, in from one to three days after the ar- "^'^^' 

 rival of the cows. 



When the cow goes into the sea for food her stay there becomes longer 

 and longer as the season advances, until at times she 

 Avill be away for three or four days at a time. ^''"'^^'' ''^°'''"-- 



The pu])s when first born can not swim, and will 

 diown if tliey are put into water. ^"^^^ '■'^^ notswi,,,. 



I have seen many i)ups drowned when washed off the edge of the 

 rookery by the surf. They do not go into the water 

 until they are six or eight weeks old and then they will ^''="°'"s *« ^''""^ 

 keep in shallow water and (dose to the shore for several days more. 



They seem to like to stay on land until late in the season. Every 

 native knows a female seal at sight, and, as the law against killing a 

 female is strict and so rigidly enforced, and as the 

 clubbers are the most experienced and most careful chTi.bcd'*' '''^' '"*''''' '" 

 men <ni the island, it is very seldom that any female 

 seal is clubbed. Our people have great respect tor law and are always 

 ready to obey any rules laid down by the i)roper authority, and they 

 271G— VOL. II 9 



