TAKEN IN SAN FRANCISCO. 453 



furtlier soiitli aloug tlie California coast, but as seals have become 

 scarcer, tliey do not, in the last year or two, get many south of the 

 Oreiion coast. Of tlie class of seals taken I can say, from personal 

 observation on board sealing vessels, as well as from knowledge gained 

 in buying and handling tlie skins from seals killed in the Pacific, that 

 in the spring 95 per cent of them are cows heavy with _ 



.^'='.* , ,, ^ 111J.1 Percentage of cows, 



pup; 4 per cent are pups less than 1 year old, born the pnps, and males 

 previous summer, and 1 per cent males, most of the *''^®°- 

 latter not exceeding 2 or 3 years old. The number of waste of life, 

 seals actually secured to the number killed does not 

 exceed about one in four, or about one is taken for every three de- 

 stroyed, varying, of course, with the skill and experience of the 

 hunters. 



The average market value of seal skins taken in the water as com- 

 pared with that of animals properly selected on the 

 seal islands, either of Alaska or Siberia, is about one- pe^gXinr^"^ *"' 

 third. The former are mostly pregnant cows, the fur 

 of which is thin and poor, compared with the males, and the skins are 

 riddled more or less with bullets and buckshot, making them practically 

 unfit for first-class garments. 



Of late years most of the catches of northwest skins are sold at a 

 certain price per skin, without particular examination. The dealers, 

 knowing the location from which the skins are obtained, make an av- 

 erage price, and owners and hunters are, therefore, less particular than 

 they were in former years as to the class of animals 

 they capture. They kill everything they see without .^indiscriminate kiu- 

 regard to age or sex, their only object being to swell 

 the total number of the catch to the highest possible figure. 



I have noticed in examining the skins of the northwest or " Victoria 

 catch " during the last two years that they average 

 much smaller in size than they formerly did. The ,,k?iff ***'"'''^ '^'^ °^ 

 large breeding cows, of which this catch used to contain 

 a consideiable percentage, are now almost entirely absent, showing 

 conclusively that the old stock has been exterminated, and the supply 

 upon which they are now drawing is comprised of younger animals. 



The practice of using shotguns charged with buckshot is working 

 havoc in the seal herd. The shots scatter, and many „ .,, , ^ 



, , , , J.1 X j?j. 1 T J? Havoc with shotgun. 



animals are wounded and escape that afterwards die of 

 their wounds. This is conclusively jjroved by the fact that many skins 

 known to the trade as "stinkers" are brought in and offered for sale; 

 so called because they have been taken by passing vessels from seals 

 found dead on the surface of the water. It is well known that seals 

 which are killed at sea and sink beyond the reach of the hunter's gaff 

 rise to the surface after decomposition sets in. Naturally, those thus 

 picked uj) are but a small part of the number that actually perish in 

 the water, in consequence of their wounds. If all the ^ . .^ ^ 



T ',1 ^., 1J1TT • Superiority of spear. 



seals were taken as they were by the Indians m 

 former years, by spearing, their destruction would be nothing near as 

 great as it is. If the spear dart touches the animal but lightly he 

 goes oif with a slight wound and quickly recovers, while if it fairly pen- 

 etrates his body his capture is reasonably certain, for the spear is 

 attached by a line to the canoe, and the seal can not escape. Unfor-^ 

 tunately, a great majority of the seals are now killed with guns instead* 

 of spears. 



The idea of capturing seals m the water, when they are farther off 



