DISADVANTAGES OF WHITE HUNTEES. 



305 



had been thrown overboard many rejected specimens, among which were a number of 

 macruri, which would be apt to float for some time at or near the surface if not molested. 



It has been claimed that seals will not eat dead fish, but this is a mistake, for the 

 writer has seen them devour salmon that had been dead several days. 



Surface fishes, and especially squid, se'em to be the natural food of the seal. In 

 the stomachs that have been examined a variety of material was found, such as pieces 

 of Alaskan pollock, salmon, and other fishes, but it has also beeu observed that in 

 localities where squid are plentiful very little other food may be looked for. I am 

 informed by hunters that on the coast of Japan and off the Commander Islands squid 

 occur in great abundance, and that it is not an uncommon sight to see a half dozen or 

 more seals together feeding on the tentacles of octopus floating on the surface. Sealers 

 usually find squid plentiful off the island of Kadiak, and in that locality they have 

 often been found in large quantities in the stomachs of the seals. 



WHITE HUNTERS AT A DISADVANTAGE. 



The white hunters on the Dora Siewerd did not have the same opportunity ot 

 getting seals as the Indians for several reasons, one of which was that, as a rule, they 

 were the last to leave the vessel in the morning and the first to return at night. They 

 were expected to hoist out all the canoes, and in the evening to hoist them in again, 

 stow them away, and lash them. Indians are useless in this kind of work, aud.upon 

 their arrival alongside their duties have ended, as the skinning of the seals devolves 

 upon the steersmen. 



The Indians, therefore, had every advantage in respect to hunting. On leaving 

 a vessel the boats nearly always form a line so that each will have a clear space to 

 windward. When all the boats start out together they are all on au equal footing; 

 but when one or two boats, as was the case with our white hunters, are obliged to 

 follow in the rear of others, their chance of seeing many seals is greatly lessened, for 

 they are hunting in water already passed over, but the situation improves as the boats 

 become more widely separated. Sometimes, also, a sudden change of wind favors the 

 last boats to go out and places them to windward, a coveted position w^hich they could 

 not otherwise have secured, a windward position being always considered the best. 

 In perfectly calm weather one position is as good as another. 



Record 0/ the position of the vessel and of the catch offkr seals each day by the sealing schooner Dora Siewerd 

 during a cruise in Bering Sea in August and September, 1895, showing also the number of each sex taken 

 daily as entered in the official log of the vessel. 



a On August 15 a canoe vent astray, but afterwards returned, bringing in 12 skins, of which the 

 determined. 



5947_PT 3 20 



sexes were not 



