98 THE ASIATIC PUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 



laughter and meriment of the Aleuts. I expected every time to see it lie dead with broken back or 

 neck, but every time the involuntary acrobat arose unhurt, looked around in a dazed manner, as if 

 surprised at finding himself so suddenly alone, away from his comrades and tormentors, and scampered 

 away as fast as possible toward the sea. 



' About halfway up the hill even the larger seals commenced to give out and refused to move farther, 

 from sheer exhaustion. As it would not do to leave these behind, a knock with a club on the head 

 finished their unhappy existence. In a minute or a minute and a half, the skin had been ripped off 

 from the quivering body and thrown into the knapsack which each man carried on his back. Having 

 arrived at the top, the survivors were given a long rest. The remaining 2 miles of the march were 

 easier, though the last ascent was hard enough on account of the tired condition of the animals. An 

 hour of rest was given before the final killing, to allow the animals to cool off. 



This drive can easily be traced oa the map (pi. 101), as it followed the dotted line 

 between the Pestshani hauling ground and Glinka village. 



With slight modifications the above description applies to most of the drives on 

 Copper Island during the days of plenty, though the present one was one of the 

 hardest, as it was the longest. A shorter route was afterwards devised, as detailed 

 under the description of the Glinka rookeries (p. 6>). Of late years there has not 

 always been enough animals to make it worth while to drive them from Palata over 

 the 1,000-foot pass, and many of the small drives are killed not far from the beach, 

 and the skins carried in knapsacks across the mountains to the salt houses on the 

 other side of the island. At Karabelni the carcasses were even skinned right on the 

 beach, not 1,200 yards from the breeding grounds, so that the waves carried them out 

 to sea and occasionally threw them up again on the rookery among the living seals. 

 However, even nowadays the seals are driven across the island every time their 

 meat is wanted for food, or whenever the drive consists of so many seals that it is 

 practically impossible for the people to carry all the skins on their backs, as testified 

 by the 700 decaying corpses on the killing ground at Pestshani salt house, -which I 

 photographed on August 6, 1895 (pi. 58c). 



To complete the picture of the driving on Copper Island, I may describe one of 

 these small drives, the principal object of which was to obtain fresh meat for the 

 natives. It is thus recorded in my diary for August 8, 1895 (pi. 58a) : 



The weather was just right for ducks and fur seals, and consequently we started out this morning 

 at 6 a. m. in a drizzling rain. There was no help for it. The drive could not be postponed, and as I 

 was going to photograph, rain or no rain, the cameras were taken along. The weather might possibly 

 be better on the other side of the mountains, but it wasn't. 



As indicated yesterday, all the rookeries had to be scraped in order to make even a small drive, 

 and since I could only be in one place at a time, I selected to go with the party taking the drive at 

 Zapadni. Here altogether about 250 animals were finally gathered together, and the driving started 

 in three divisions. This could easily be done, for there were certainly enough people to attend to each 

 division, there being no less than 30 full-grown men and about half a dozen boys. What a difference 

 from former days, when 2 men or boys were all that could be spared for divisions of about 200 seals 

 each ! Most of tlie auimals were killable bachelors, a few females and undersized bachelors having 

 been separated out, as the drive went on, before the steep ascent was reached. Thus far I have only 

 with certainty discovered one female driven across the mountain. 



The road was very wet and slippery, both from the long grass and the smooth clay which here 

 forms the chief material covering the underlying rock, and the ascent was consequently a very labo- 

 rious one. The middle part of it is very steep, and in one place steps have been cut in the ground so 

 as to facilitate the climbing. The altitude of the pass forming the highest point on this drive is 

 about 800'. 



The seals soon commenced to give out, and the men then resorted to all sorts of goading them on, 

 short of killing, in order to get as many of the seals as possilile alive to the killing ground at the vil- 

 lage, since they wanted the moat badly. Only when a seal could absolutely go no farther, after having 



