APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 507 



away, one or more hinged behind the others, moving with great difficulty, and by 

 means of their fore-flippers only, as if llieir backs or hinder parts had been hni't in 

 some way. They seemed to revive after the water was reached, and it was not 

 jiossible for me to determine whether the injury was of a kind that would affect them 

 peruianently or not. 



153 No better proof of the injury done to seals by driving could be had than to 

 walk aloug the route followed by them when driven from a hanling-ground 



to the killing-ground. The ground is on all sides strewn with bones; and if there 

 has been a recent drive, many rotting carcasses are also to be seen. The day after 

 a drive from Middle Hill I walked- for about a mile from the salt-hovse along the 

 route over which the seals liad been driven, and found seventeen carcasses of seals 

 that had become overheated, and had been killed so that their skins might be saved. 

 I found one dead seal lying in a small pond of water, al)out a mile from the killing- 

 grounds, through which I he seals had been driven: it liad no doubt become cxliausted, 

 and, lying down there, had escaped the notice of the drivers. The fur was still 

 good. 'J'he carcasses referred to above were all of animals of the size of which the 

 skins would be of the weight recjuired by the Company, and much better able to 

 bear the tatigwe of the long drive than the younger ones. 



As actual counting at four killings show that less than 20 per cent, of the seals 

 driven were of what, the agents of the Company considered a killable size, the num- 

 ber of young seals hurt while being driven must be very great, but not, I think, 

 greater than those injured when the seals are huddled together surrounded by the 

 clubbers. With no escape in any direction they draw nearer one another, until they 

 are at last crowded so closely together that little more than their heads are visible, 

 exce])t when one of the larger seals struggles out from among the others: if of a 

 killable size, it is knocked on the head and falls back into the struggling mass. The 

 "pod" is continually poked and stirred up by the clubber, in order that the seals 

 may be kejit moving; and when all that are of the proper size have been clubbed 

 the others are driven from the killing-grounds, with cries from the clubbers and the 

 beating of pans by the attendant boys. If by chance a "killable" seal escapes 

 with tiie younger ones, a club is thrown at it, and though many are struck in this 

 way, I never saw one stunned or prevented from reaching tiie lagoon, a short distance 

 away. Whether such seals receive permanent injury it is impossible to say, but the 

 throwing of the club at them always appeared to me an act of wanton cruelty, or a 

 sort of pastime to amuse the clubbers while the next "pod" of seals was being 

 driven up. 



While tlie seals were huddled togther on the killing-ground the clouds of steam 

 rising from them showed i)laiuly the ovei--heated condition of the animals. 



The only duty of the Treasury Agents at these killings appeared to be to take 

 down in a perfunctory manner the number of seals killed as called out to him by the 

 chief clubber. No other count but this was ever made on the field, both the Govern- 

 ment and the Company depending entirely upon the counting of the skins in and out 

 of the salt-houses when estimating the number of seals taken. 



Baids. 



During the months of .July and August 1892 no guard was stationed upon any 

 rookery on either island with the exception of North-east Point on St. Paul Island, 

 and Zapadnie on St. George. Polavina and Zapadnie rookeries on the former island, 

 and Great East and Starry Arteel rookeries on the latter, were left withoiit a guard 

 of any kind, and three of these four rookeries are known to have been raided in recent 

 years. 



On the 16th .Inly I walked on St. George Island from the village to Zapadnie rook- 

 ery with the two natives who were going to relieve the watchmen there. One was 

 a young njan about 20 years of age, the other a boy of 12 or 13. When we reached 

 the giuird house I found that the guards to be relieved were an elderly man with but 

 one arn^, .ind a boy of about the same age as the one referred to above. I was after- 

 wards told by Dr. Noyes, the Manager on St. George Island for the Company, that 

 w-hen the killing season was at its height this one-armed man was the only guard kept 

 at Zaiiadnie. He was unable to assist in any way at the killings, so was employed, 

 as a watchman. 



Two or three men were kept at North-east Point, St. Paul Island, and this place is 

 connected with the village by a telephone-line. Early in August 1892, however, the 

 receiver or transmitter at one end of the line got out of order, and it was rendered use- 

 less as a means ol commnnication bct^^ een these places. At the time of my departure 

 from the island on the 12th September it was still in this condition, and there was 

 ajiparently no i^rospect of its being repaired before next siu-ing. More than two 

 hours would be reipiired by the watchmen to reach the village were a raid to be 

 made at North-east Point, and the same time to return with .assistance. This, with 

 the time consumed in rousing the people at the village, would give any raiders 



154 ample opportunity to do their work, as I have been assured by several meu 



