182 TESTIMONY 



refuse to do it, and would iuiinediately report me to the Government 

 Agent. 1 have known an occasi'^nal one to be killed by 

 1) ^awkient''^^'"^ ''"^'^ accident during the food drives late in the season when 

 yaccicen. ^^^ males and females intermingle on the hanling 



grounds, but the clubber was always severely rebuked by the chief for 

 his carelessness as well as by the (rovernment and Company Officers. 



My observation is that the number of female seals killed on the 

 Islands from all causes is. too insignificantly small to be noticed. The 

 ... longest drives made on St. George Island are from 

 LeDgth of the (loves, u g tarry Atcel" and "Great Eastern" rookeries, and 

 they are less than 3 miles long. Drives from these rookeries require 

 from four to six hours, accordiug to the weather. At Zapadnie rook- 

 ery, on St. George, the drive to the killing grounds is less than a mile, 

 the seals are now being killed there instead of being driven across the 

 Island as they were prior to 1878, when it took three days to make the 

 journey. There is now a salt house at Zapadnie, at which the skins are 

 salted as soon as taken. The killing grounds on both Islands are all 

 situated witlun a very short distance from the shore, and seals not suit- 

 able to be killed, or that are turned out for any cause, immediately go 

 into the water, and, after sporting around for an hour or two, they re- 

 turn to the hauling ground«, and to all appearances they are as uncon- 

 cerned and careless of the presence of man as they were before they 

 were driven to the killing grounds. I have often observed that the seals 

 when on the Islands do not take fright easily at the pres- 



seJis™""*^^^ °^ *^^^ ^"^® '^^ ^^'^^ ' '^^^ ^^^^ natives go among them with im- 

 punity. They will go into a herd of seals on the haul- 

 ing grounds and quietly separate tliem into as many divisions and sub- 

 divisions as is necessary before driving them to the killing grounds. At 

 the killing grounds they are again divided into bunches or " j)ods" of 

 twenty or thirty each more readily than the same number of domestic 

 animals could be handled under the same circumstances. 



The bulls on the rookeries will not only stand their ground against 

 the approach of man, but will become the aggressors if disturbed. 

 Pups are tame and very playful when young, and, previous to 1891, 

 when it was the practice to kill three or four thousand for natives' food 

 in November, thousands of them were picked up and handled to deter- 

 mine the sex, for only the males were allowed to be killed. Hair seal 

 and sea lions haul out on the Islands and are seldom disturbed, yet 

 they will plunge into the water at once should they discover anyone 

 upon their rookeries, but it is not so with the fur-seal. They seem at 

 home on the rookeries aiul hauling grounds, and they show a degree of 

 domestication seldom found among similar animals. At Northeast 



Reduction of length Poiut rookcry ou St. Paul Island the longest drive is 

 of drives. 2 miles. In former times the Eussians used to drive 



from this rookery to St. Paul village, a distance of 12^ miles. Seals 

 turned away from the killing grounds return to the rookery from which 

 they were driven, therefore a male seal is not redriven day after day, 

 because a hauling ground is always given several days rest before being 



No injury from re- drivcu from again. I never saw or heard of the gen- 

 driving, erative organs of a male seal being injured by driving 

 or by redriving, and if such a thing had taken place, eveii in excep- 

 tional cases, the natives would have noticed and reported it, which 

 they never did. I have seen a seal's flippers made sore by driving, but 

 I never saw one that was seriously injured by driving. I do not believe 

 that a male seal's powers of reproduction were ever affected by driving 

 or rediiviug. 



