FVR SEALS. 161 



"As the seals are not wholly at rest until the females arrive, great care is 

 necessiary in selecting the time and place from which to drive. These points are 

 determined by a head-man, who assumes the whole control of this part of the bus- 

 iness. In the month of May, only the small number required by the natives for 

 food are driven. In June, when the seals are more numerous, they are driven and 

 killed for their skins, although the percentage of prime skins is at this time very 

 small, often not twenty per cent, of the whole flock driven. About the middle of 

 July, the females go off into the water, and there is a period of general rest among 

 all the seals, during which time the natives desist entirely from killing for ten to 

 fifteen days. At the close of this period, the great body of yearling seals arrive. 

 These, mixing with the younger class of males, spread over the uplands, and greatly 

 increase the difficulty of killing properly. Up to this time, there having been no 

 females with the seals driven up for killing, it was only necessary to distinguish 

 ages ; this the difference in size enables them to do very easily. Now, however, 

 nearly one -half are females, and the slight difference between these and the younger 

 males, renders it necessary for the liead-man to see every seal killed, and only a 

 strong interest in the preservation of the stock can insure the proper care. Sep- 

 tember and October are considered the best months for taking the seals. 



"Besides the skin, each seal will yield one gallon and a half of oil, and the 

 linings of all the throats are saved and salted as an article of trade to other ports 

 in the territory, these being used by the natives for making water -proof frocks to 

 wear in their skin -canoes when hunting the sea -otter or fishing. These parts have 

 no very great commercial value, though they are considered by the natives as indis- 

 pensable to them. 



"Mode of Cueing the Skins. — The skins are all taken to the salt-houses, and 

 are salted in kenches, or square bins, the skins being spread down, flesh -side up, 

 and a layer of salt spread over them. They remain thus packed for thirty or forty 

 days, when they are taken from the bins ; the salt is removed, and the skins are 

 folded together, the flesh -side in, and sprinkled as they are folded with a quantity 

 of clean salt. They are then ready for shipment. 



"Number op Seals frequenting the Island. — There are at least twelve miles of 

 shore -line on the island of St. Paul's occupied by the seals as breeding- ground, with 

 an average Avidth of fifteen rods. There being about twenty seals to the square 

 rod, gives one million one hundred and fifty- two thousand as the whole number of 

 breeding males and females. Deducting one -tenth for males, leaves one million 

 thirty -seven thousand and eight hundred breeding females. Allowing one -half of 

 the present year's pups to be females, this will add half a million of breeding females 



Mawne Mammals —21. 



