PELAGIC SEALING. 



231 



by unknown currents. The spring sealing off tlie coast of southeast Alaska has 

 been attended with frequent loss of vessels, and many vessels have been lost on the 

 coast of Japan and in the Kuril Islands. Quite a number of vessels have been 

 capsized and lost with all hands during gales. Sealing in Bering Sea has not been 

 accompanied with disasters to the same extent as in the North Pacific Ocean. This 

 is probably due to the fact that sealing in these waters has been carried on during the 

 summer and restricted to a shorter season. The following list of vessels lost during 

 the past nine years is incomplete, but probably includes nearly all the losses that 

 occurred during that period : 



In addition to the loss of vessels, there are few vessels in the sealing fleets that 

 have not lost boats and hunters. This is a constant danger connected with pelagic 

 sealing. On the Japan coast, where there aje many strong currents setting in 

 different directions, the hunting boats are frequently carried long distances from the 

 vessels, and, being sometimes unable to regain the vessels, are lost if not picked up 

 by other vessels of the fleet. Fortunately, on the principal sealing grounds the 

 sealing fleet is of considerable size and the chances for boats being picked up by other 

 vessels are good. On the Japan grounds killer whales are abundant and a number 

 of the losses of boats and men ha^ve been attributed to this cause, as in several cases 

 killers have been seen to attack and overturn hunting boats. On the northwest coast 

 sealing grounds boats are frequently lost from their vessels, but they have in most 

 cases managed to reach some part of the mainland. This is also true of the Bering 

 Sea sealing grounds. The lost hunters have at times remained for days in their boats 

 and subsisted on the flesh of seals that they picked up, while heavy gales have been 

 ridden out by keeping the boat lying to a drag made from the carcasses or skins of 

 seals. Indian hunters havfe, on a few occasions, been lost in their canoes from vessels 

 in Bering Sea, and finally reached some of the Aleutian Islands greatly exhausted. 



