FUR SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 137 



females, tliey will }?o away and sbun the place hereafter. It would 

 argue that they have a perfect understanding of their safety. I think 

 these breeding seals repair to these islands with a distinct understand- 

 ing of the fitness of the land as a whole. I am not ready to declare 

 that every seal born thereon goes back to the exact spot of its birth, but 

 I believe the seals are largely influenced by the knowledge that this is 

 their home. The breeding seals, in coming up and landing, are undoubt- 

 edly guided to the several rookeries largely by scent, but this is only a 

 supposition. In landing, if they come a little late and find the rook- 

 eries somewhat crowded, they will not attempt to force themselves 

 through, but will go to another i^art of the rookery not quite so much 

 occupied. When the females come, as they do, in large numbers they 

 can not as a bodj' possibly find the same spototlast year's occupation, 

 because they are often crowded off and forced to settle in a position 

 elsewhere, so that females that have been born and have bred this year 

 on one part of the rookery will be compelled in this way to go to some 

 other part of it next season. Let anybody disturb them, however, 

 go among them with fire-arms or clubs, or along the beach even, and 

 they will soon take the alarm and leave. I am well satisfied of the 

 truth of that. 



Q. Were the Alaska Commercial Company the lessees when you were 

 there? — A. Yes, sir. 



Q. You observed the methods adopted by the company for taking, 

 counting, and shipping seal skins'? — A. Yes, sir; very closely. The 

 method is a simple and direct one, and very easily observed and re- 

 corded. The habit of the company is to inform the chiefs or foremen of 

 the natives every morning during the working season of their desire for 

 a certain number and certain kind of skins. These men go to the na- 

 tives and arouse them from their slumbers and start several of them at 

 the break of day for some one or two of the hauling grounds where 

 the " bachelor" seals or non-breeding males are. This separation of the 

 bachelors from the non-breeding seals is one of their own volition. No 

 young male can i)ut his flippers upon the breeding grounds without an 

 overpowering assault from an old bull, and until the young males at- 

 tain the size and strength of an old male they can not become the heads of 

 families. They may make an attempt, they often do, but they are never 

 able to get on the breeding grounds; therefore they are obliged by these 

 angry, jealous old males to herd apart by themselves. Sometimes thou- 

 sands and sometimes tens of thousands, sometimes close by and some- 

 times a mile away from the breeding grounds, they will continue annu- 

 ally to land until they are big and strong enough to repair to the rook- 

 eries and successfully fight for their rights. In this manner the seals 

 are separated by their own volition into two sets, *. e., breeding and non- 

 breeding seals. 



Q. Give an account of what the breeding seals do. — A. The breeding 

 seals are composed, as we find them on the rookeries, of the old males 

 and females. I call every full-grown male an old male. No male under 

 six years old can put a flipper on these breeding grounds and stay there 

 alive. The old males arrive first. They come cautiously about the 

 shores, and are the earliest arrivals. Along about the 2d, 3d, or 4th of 

 May the first old fellows will be seen. They may be noticed here and 

 there, their heads popping out of the surf, looking around, and then soon 

 after shaking themselves out dry on the ground that they have as a rule 

 previously occupied. A few weeks later more and more old ones come. 

 Along about the middle of May all the bulls have arrived as a rule. 



