230 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



many uneasy movements, frequently allowing its head to sink below the surface, 

 rolling from side to side, scratching, or raising its flippers in the air. Swimming seals 

 go along sometimes swimming by continuous easy dives, appearing at the surface to 

 breathe, or go slowly with little more than the back exposed. This is usually the way 

 with single animals. Where there are several seals traveling together, they will 

 frequently rise clear of the water with dolphin-like leaps. The greatest care is 

 necessary in approaching a sleeping seal, as the slightest noise will awaken it. The 

 hunter stands in the bow ready to fire at the first favorable opportunity, letting the 

 boat approach very close if the animal shows no signs of awaking. 



In taking seals with the spear still more care is necessary, as the range of the 

 weapon is less and it is necessary to approach somewhat closer. 



The best catches are made when the sea is smooth, as seals have little chance to 

 sleep when the sea is rough. 



An important number of seals is wasted in pelagic sealing, as some of them sink 

 before they can be recovered, while others are wounded and dash away apparently 

 uninjured, only to succumb to their wounds later. The indications of these are traces 

 of blood left upon the water and the considerable number of male seals killed on the 

 fur-seal islands that retain buckshot in their skins. A few seals die on the rookeries, 

 from gunshot wounds. 



Many seals that are considered by the hunters as missed are undoubtedly seriously 

 wounded. There is no means of knowing what proportion the injured seals arriving 

 at the islands bear to the number that have died of their injuries before reaching the 

 islands. 



Seals killed instantly when their heads are above the water sink quickly; the rest 

 of the body being submerged, the ])ressure of the water forces the air from it and it 

 goes down at once. Slee])ing seals killed when the head is low in the water float for a 

 time, as the head settling into the water first retains the air in the lungs, causing the 

 body to float. 



I'elagic sealing is very effective as a means of destroying seals. Each vessel 

 carries many boats, and these boats, hunting in all directions, frequently miles away 

 from the vessels to which they belong, are able to explore a great extent of ocean. 

 When many vessels are hunting on the more contracted sealing grounds, they are 

 frequently so close together that the liunting areas of the different schooners overlap. 



Sealing vessels starting out for the full season's work engage for a short time in 

 sealing in the winter on the northwest coast sealing grounds; then proceeding across 

 the Pacific Ocean, begin operations off the Japan coast in the spring. My the end of 

 June the seals have left this region on the northward migration, and are followed by 

 the sealing fleet to the sealing grounds iti Bering Sea. As the sealing there is not 

 concluded until late in September, the vessels return to British Columbia frequently 

 after a cruise of eight or ten months. This is a long and more or less rough voyage 

 for schooners of rather small size, and it is perhaps surprising that the loss of vessels 

 has not been greater. 



VESSELS LOST. 



Pelagic sealing, like other industries carried on on the high seas, is subject to 

 many dangers. The more northerly sealing grounds are in stormy and foggy latitudes, 

 and vessels have frequently been lost during gales, while others have been wrecked 

 on imperfectly surveyed coasts, or have been carried in the fog into dangerous places 



