20 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



Q. By themselves? — A. Yes; away from the families entirely. The 

 natives, when it is time to drive up the seals, get between them and the 

 water, and then tliey can drive them anywhere by making a noise with 

 a chib or stick or tin pan, and then they drive them to the killing 

 grounds, which are sometimes one mile away and sometimes three. 



Q. And tlien at the killing ground who superintends the selection of 

 those ro be lulled'? — A. They are there huddled up and then they are 

 separated, about lifty at a time — corraled, as it were — and the superin- 

 tendent of that is one of the employes of the company. They kill them 

 with ti club, selecting those only whose faces indicate their age. The 

 natives can tell at once by the face of a seal, as they have had so much 

 experience. They knock them first with a club and then stick them 

 with a knife. 



Q. Do they kill any females ? — A. They never kill females. I do not 

 know of but two or three instances in my experience where a female 

 seal was ever driven out with the crowd. 



Q. The word " bachelor" means male as well as the state of celibacy ? — 

 A. Yes, sir. Occasionally they would drive up an old bull who had had 

 his day, and who could not tight any more, and he goes in with the rest 

 of them. 



Q. During what season are these seals taken? — A. The season com- 

 mences the 1st of June and continues until they get their hundred thou- 

 sand, if they want a hundred thousand. Sometimes they do not take 

 so nuich. One year they only took 75,000. 



Q. How does the Government agent ascertain the number taken ? — 

 A. The way I managed it was to allow my assistant to count all the 

 skins when taken and drawn to the salt-house by the team from the 

 killing fields, ami he counted them in there. I did not pay any atten- 

 tion to that. When he had counted them he brought me the tally, and 

 we have a record in a large record-book of what was killed each day. 

 The natives knew when we got the number right themselves. They 

 would watch that very carefully. When we came to ship them I did the 

 entire counting, which would be a check upon my assistant. 



Q. Y^ou counted them into the vessel 1 — A. Y'es, sir; I counted them 

 into the vessel. 



Q. Was there any further count by the Government after that ? — A. 

 They are counted in San Francisco. 



Q. At the custom-house ? — A. It is part of the inspector's duty to 

 count them. 



Q. Is that where payments are made by the company ? — A. Generally 

 it is nuide ui)ou the San Francisco count ; but one year I came down 

 on the vessel, aild I went out to see how they counted them, and I was 

 interested in it. I said to Mr. Gerstle, " I do not believe you are pay- 

 ing for all the skins we get." They can not count them the way they 

 do and count them correctly. They count them this way [ illustrating 

 with his hands], fast, you know. Their count came out a little short of 

 my count, so they paid on my count sttd not on the San Francisco count 

 that time. ^ 



Q. How much were they short of your count ? — A. I think about 100 

 skins. 



Q. Have you any knowledge of the former condition of the n; ives 

 as comi)ared with the condition of the natives when you found then. ? — 

 A. I only know from what I heard from the natives and others. 



Q. Well, let us hear what you heard from the natives themselves ? — A. 

 They agree to this, that they have more to eat and live better, but they 

 do not get as much to drink. I had better Btftt§ vb^t J 4i<i. 



