258 INVESTIGATION" OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



they all had these whistles and used them to drive seals out of the rookeries, especi- 

 ally under these bluffs of Lukanin, of the Reef and Seevitchie Kammers; also of the 

 shelf on Zapadnie and Polovina Bluffs. 



Saturday, July 5, 1890. 

 Tingle drove all the holluschickie off from the landing (at Otter Island) as soon as 

 we came ashore. 



July 9, 1890. 

 Three natives driving holluschickie under the "drop" at Zapadnie. They told 

 me that they had killed several thousand down tl ere on the shelf in 1887-88, and 

 carried the skins off in the baidar; only a few here to-day, and so drove them off, 

 rather than make a killing; also that every one of the S. W. Point seals were slaugh- 

 tered there on the ground in 1887-88; finest lot seals ever rounded up, not one under 

 size, and all secured. 



[Elliott's diary on St. Pauls Island, May 21-Aug. 14, 1890.] 



Thursday, July 3, 1890. 



Mr. Goff l asked me to-night if I was aware of the fact that the natives had been 

 ordered to sweep the bluff margins at Zapadnie and strew broken bottles, coal-oil 

 cans, etc., on the rocks. I told him that I was; that this work of hustling out every 

 young male seal that could be found hiding in the shelter of the rookery margins and 

 under the high bluffs at Zapadnie, Polavina, Lukannon, and west side of Reef Point, 

 Sieviethie Kammen, and Otter Island was begun here in 1884, and also on St. George. 



Mr. Goff also asked me if I knew that the natives were supplied with whistles for 

 stampeding the holluschickie on the rookery margins next to the surf, and that squads 

 were employed secretly at the work. I told him, yes; that Palmer 1 had witnessed 

 and heard such a "drive" under Lukannon bluffs, when he was coming down from 

 ^Northeast Point, 4th instant. Palmer reported the occurrence to me. 



What shall we do? As matters stand, do nothing but record it; it simply shows 

 the extreme diminution of the young male life. 



Friday, July 4- 

 Booterin and Artamonov both shrugged their shoulders this morning when I asked 

 them about the whistles — "Excuse me, please," and off they shuffled with very 

 wise grins. 



I cornered Aggie Gushing to-day, and he admitted that he had been ordered to 

 "salt" the bluff rocks at Zapadnie in 1889; that every seal had been killed at S. W. 

 Point and "Kursoolah" by the end of the season of 1888; that this hauling ground 

 was not driven; the baidar came direct from the village and the men rounded the 

 seals all up on the ground itself, killed and skinned them there, "all big seals;" "fine, 

 very fine seals; none got away." "When did you first come, Aggie?" "June, 1886, 

 we came first time." "Why?" "Big, fine seals, sir; get 'em; every one, too." 

 "Its pretty well grass grown over there now; when did you quit killing there? "We 

 got them all in 1888, sir." "Why haven't any seals hauled there since?" "There 

 ain't any left — they have all gone, maas lucken." "When do you think the trouble 

 began here, Aggie?" "It first became hard, Mr. Elliott, in 1883, and it has been 

 getting harder and slower all the time." "Have you got a whistle, Aggie? " "Yes," 

 and showed it to me, slung under his shirt by a neck string; it was a regular pewter 

 dog whistle. Aggie begged off when asked as to details of the work of the whistle 

 brigade, and I dropped the subject. 



DR. JORDAN DELIBERATELY FALSIFIES THE RUSSIAN RECORD IN RE 



NOT KILLING FEMALE SEALS. 



Dr. Jordan had full knowledge of the fact that the Russian killing 

 of seals from the time the old Russian American company took 

 charge of the Pribilof herd in 1800, up to the day we received it 

 from them in 1867, never permitted the killing of female seals. 

 He, with that full knowledge in his possession, after holding it for 



1 Chas. J. Gofl, named above, is dead. W. S. Palmer, however, also named and quoted above, is now 

 emploved as one of the curators and preparators in the United States National Museum, Washington, 

 D. C. (May 13, 1913). 



