1897-8. TRANSACTIONS. 73 



him, one pulling with his back the other with his face towards 

 the bow. When a seal is seen the boat is rowed gently to- 

 wards it the man facing the bow acting as steersman. If the 

 seal dives and comes up in the rear of the boat it is not neces- 

 sary to turn it, the bowman then becoming steersman. The 

 hunter never fires except at very short range and seals that 

 have been hit are with rare exceptions secured. The prohibi- 

 tion of the use of fire-arms in Behring Sea has led to a more 

 general use of the spear by white hunters. It has always 

 been the favorite weapon of the Indian. When hunting with 

 the spear the white hunter stands in the bow of the boat. 

 Indians use canoes almost exclusively. Two men form a 

 crew, the bowsman acting as hunter. Each schooner carries 

 from ten to twenty, sometimes more, boats or canoes. 



The life of the pelagic seal hunters is in every respect a 

 hard one. On board the schooner his quarters are crowded 

 and his fare often poor. He is allowed to remain on board 

 only in the very roughest weather, any day on which the 

 boats may be lowered with safety being considered a suitable 

 one for hunting. On leaving the vessel the boats nearly 

 always form in line so that each may have a clear space to 

 windward. The schooner remains as near as possible station- 

 ary during the day, sometimes slowly following in the wake 

 of the boats, though if the weather be calm they work to- 

 wards all points of the compass and then, of course, the vessel 

 moves as little as possible. Often in the North Pacific and near- 

 ly always in Behring Sea the fog is so dense that the vessel can 

 be distinguished only a few yards away, but these hardy ad- 

 venturous men, taking their lives in their hands set out to 

 look for seals with the same unconcern as if the day were 

 clear. In such weather a fog-horn is blown on the schooner 

 towards evening or a bomb-gun fired, but even with these 

 precautions boats frequently fail to reach the schooner until 

 the following day and some of them not at all. The methods 

 of salting and curing the skins on board these vessels are as 

 nearly like those pursued on the islands as the restricted room 

 pnd tossing vessel will allow. 



While only young male seals are killed on the islands, 

 the pelagic sealer from the very nature of his methods of 

 hunting is compelled to kill male and female indiscriminately, 

 the sexes not being distinguishable when the seals are in the 

 water. That this is the case has been made the basis of in- 

 numerable attacks upon pelagic sealing, not alone by those 

 interested in the Behring Sea controversy, but by uninterested 



