RELATING TO ST. PAUL ISLAND, 151 



half a mile an liour. So carefully is the driving done that it has been 

 found necessary to divide the native drivers into several "Avatches" 

 which relieve each other on the road, because, the pace being so slow, 

 the men get cold. 



From 1875 to 1883 il, was no uncommon thing for the lessees to talce 

 the annual quota of 100,000 skins between June 1st and 

 July L'O, and yet there was no sign of any decrease, but isTs^to'iss?.^"^" ''"'" 

 rather an expansion of most of the rookeries. 



I do not pretend to be able to say how many seals there are, or ever 

 were, on the rookeries; nor do 1 believe anybody else can tell; for the 

 rookeries are so broken and lilled with rocks it is impossible to esti- 

 mate the number of seals upon them with any approach to accuracy. 

 The lines of expansion and contraction are plain enough, and can be 

 seen and understood by the whole community. 



Until 1881 sealing schooners were seen but very seldom near the is- 

 lands or in Bering Sea, and the few seals taken by the 

 hunters who raided the rookeries occasionally are too ^g^° poaching before 

 ])altry to be seriously consideied, because the raids 

 were so few, and the facilities for taking many seals off so utterly in- 

 significant. In 1881 the sealing schooners became num- 

 erous. I believe there were about thirty in the sea that crra*s\^#o'srnoi'"88i!"' 

 year, and they have increased very rapidly every year 

 since, until now they are said to be about one hundred and twenty. 

 As the schooners increased the seals decreased, and the 

 lines of contraction on the rookeries were noticed to creaseot'lcai"'' '^^' 

 draw nearer and nearer to the beach, and the killable 

 seals became fewer in numbers, and harder to find. In 1886 the de- 

 crease was so plain that the natives and all the agents ,r , 1 , 



,, . , , ^ ., , . ;i 1 1.1 • /• Markeil decrease lu 



on the ishmds saw it and were startled; and theories ot isso. 

 all sorts were advanced in an attempt to account for a 

 cause. 



A dearth of bulls on the breeding rookeries was a pet theory of one 

 or two transient visitors, but it only neeeded a thorough 'j;i,„,„.ieg 

 investigation of the condition of the rookeries to con- 

 vince the most skeptical that there were j»lenty of bulls, and to spare, 

 and that hardly a cow could be found on the rookeries without a ])up 

 at her side. 



For five years I have given this particular subject my most earnest 

 attention, and every succeeding year's experience has ^ d ti fbuiis 

 convinced ine that there is not, and never was, a dearth 

 of bulls. The theory of impotency of the young bulls because of over 

 driving when young is not worthy of consideration by 

 any sane or honest man who has ever seeeii a bull seal Young buUsuotim- 

 on a breeding rookery; and as I have already answered ''Vo'oVerdriving. 

 the question of over driving I will only add here that 

 no young bull ever goes upon a breeding rookery until he is able to 

 fight his way in, and an impotent bull has no desire to fight, nor could 

 lie win a position on the rookery were he to attemi)t 

 it. The man is not alive who ever saw a six or seven never\mpotent!" "^'^ 

 year old bull seal impotent. 



Another theory, equally untrue, was that an epidemic had seized 

 the herd ; but investigations of the closest kind have .demir 



never revealed the death, on tiie islands, of a full grown " *"'"' "'"" ' 

 seal from unknown causes. Let it be remembered that the flesh of 

 the seal is the staple diet of the natives and that it is eaten daily 



