80 ALASKA. 



hide ill tbe blubber. From one animal fifteen shot were taken, 

 and the holes which they must have made in the skin wero 

 entirely healed so as not to leave a scar. These bullets were 

 undoubtedly received from the natives of the northwest coast, 

 anywhere between the Straits of Fuca and the Aleutian 

 Islands, used by them in attempting the capture of the animals 

 some season or seasons previously. A small number of seals, 

 not definitely known, however, are taken by the Indians every 

 year along the coasts above mentioned, who surprise them 

 while soundly asleep in the water, either by shooting or spear- 

 ing. The number taken in this way every year will not average 

 5,000 ; some seasons more, some seasons less. 



That these animals are preyed upon extensively by killer- 

 whales, (Orca gladiator,) sharks, and other foes now unknown, 

 is at ouce evident ; for were they not held in check by some 

 such cause, they would quickly multiply to so great an extent 

 that Bering Sea itself could not contain them, and the present, 

 annual killing of one hundred thousand out of a yearly surplus 

 of over a million males does not, in an appreciable degree, dimin- 

 ish the seal-life, or interfere in the slightest with its regular 

 perpetuation on the breeding-grounds every year. We may 

 properly look upon this number of four and five millions of fur- 

 seals, as we see them here every year on these islands, as the 

 maximum limit of increase assigned by natural laws. I think 

 I make this clear in my chapter upon the habits of these valua- 

 ble and interesting animals, without a knowledge of which it 

 is not possible for any one to fully appreciate the truth of these 

 generalizations. Before, however, the subject of the possible 

 increase or diminution of the seal-life is taken up for discussion, 

 it is best to consider the — 



III. MANNER IN WHICH THE SEALS ARE ANNUALLY TAKEN. 



Tctling the seals. — By reference to the habits of the fur- 

 seal, it is plain that two-thirds of all the males that are born 

 (and they are equal in number to the females born) are never 

 permitted by the remaining third, strongest by natural selec- 

 tion, to land upon the same ground with the females, which 

 always herd together en masse. Therefore, this great baud of 

 bachelor seals, or " holluschickie," is compelled, when it visits 

 land, to live apart entirely, miles away frequently, from the 

 breeding-grounds,* and in this admirably perfect manner of na- 

 ture are those seals which can be properly killed without injury 



