288 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Oct. 36, 1891. 



until by June 1 all have arrived and occupied positions 

 on the rookeries. This is only done as the result of con- 

 tinual fighting and bellowing which is kept up incess- 

 antly. Ab mt June 10 the cows arrive and by the middle 

 of July they have all landed on the rookeries. 



Soon after the cow lands, sometimes the same day, she 

 gives birth lo a single young, and in the course of a week 

 or two returns to the sea to procure food. For this pur- 

 pose they travel from 50 to 100 miles west, southwest and 

 northwest of the islands, where thpy only too readily fall 

 a prey to the seal hunters, who have learned to await 

 their arrival at these places in Bering Sea. 



While the fur seal is a quiet, shy and easily alarmed 

 animal, it has several peculiar habits which are taken 

 advantage of by the seal huuters and render its captuue 

 almost an easy matter. Fur seals are commonly seen 

 scratching themselves while at the surface of the water. 

 A seal having satistied its hunger, and desiring to rest, 

 will afccend to the surface, and with only the tip of its 

 no^e and a small portion of its back, with now and then 

 a flipper out of water, will sleep, though in a rather fitful 

 manner, or with closed eyes it will roll over and over, 

 keeping its body in a continual slow motion, with one 

 flipper gently beating the water and besding its body in 

 every cunceivable position. I had many splendid oppor- 

 tunities of observing ttiis habit of the seals. On one 

 occasion I wa<ied out until I could have touched with my 

 fingers a fur seal floating on the surface. With its eyes 

 closed it rolled over several times a minute, at the same 

 time bending and twistitjg ir,s body into every possible 

 position, using one of its fore flippers as a paddle, and 

 occasionally fccratching its'elf with a hind flipper. I stood 

 thus for more than fifteen minutes, and could at any 

 moment have easily killed it. But suddenly, as it was 

 slowly drifting to leeward of me, its great eyes opened, a 

 look of astonishment seemed to pass over its face, and in 

 an instant with a great plunge it had disappeared below 

 the surface, only, however, as is the habit of the fur seal, 

 to rise agaia a few yards away, take a last look at the 

 strange object that had alarmed it and again disappear, 

 this time tor good. 



It is to this habit of the fur seal that the success of the 

 pelagic seal hunters is due. On a calm day hundreds of 

 the seals may be seen on the surface engaged in this man- 

 ner; the poachers are provided with canoes, mostly 

 manned with Puget Sounrl Indiana, who stealthily pad- 

 dle up to the unconscious seal from leeward, and shoot- 

 ing it through the head immediately attempt to prevent 

 its sinking by catching it with a pole armed with hooks. 

 It is known that from five to nine of the seals out of every 

 ten that are struck sink before they can be reached, so 

 that the waste of seal life by the pelagic seal hunters is 

 from 50 to 90 per cent. But there is to be added to this 

 statement another fact. The greater number of the seals 

 captured in the waters of Bering Sea are females which 

 are on their way to or have left their young on the rook ■ 

 eries while they are seeking food. As it is a well-known 

 fact that a mother seal will onlv suckle its own young, 

 and that the young seal id unable until it is several months 

 old to procure its own food, it necessarily obtains that the 

 death of the pup follows that of its mother in a short 

 time. The numbers of dead pups about the shores of St. 

 Paul's began to attract my attention about the middle of 

 July last year. On Aug. 3 I stood on Zoltoi Beach and 

 counted 17 dead pups within ten feet of me, and a line of 

 them stretched the whole length of the beach. Many of 

 them starve to death on the rookeries, but by far the 

 greater number sink in the deep water along the margin 

 of the rookeries. 



But pelagic seal fishing is not the only cause of the de- 

 crease of seal life on the Pribylovs. 



Probably an pqual cause is the unnatural method of 

 driving seals that has been followed on the islands since 

 the first seal was captured. 



The mere killing of seals as conducted on the islands is 

 as near perfection as it is po.-sible to get it. They are 

 quickly dispatched, and witnout pain. One soon recog- 

 nizes, as in the killing of sheep, that in the quickness 

 and neatness of the method lies its success, ail things 

 confiidered. 



But the driving is a totally different matter. I doubt if 

 anyone can look upon the painful exertions of this dense 

 crowding mass and not think that somewhere and some- 

 how there is great room for improvement. It is conducted 

 now as it always ha^ been ; no thoUiiht or attention is given 

 to it, and with but one exception no other method has 

 been suggested or even thought necessary. 



Each day during the season, which lasts from June 20 

 to Aug. 1, there are thiee killings; one on S\ George, one 

 at the village of St. Paul, and another at Northeast Point, 

 St. Paul. 



I have marked on outline maps of the islands the ex- 

 tent of some of these drives, which are as follow,-: Mon- 

 day from the R^ef, Tu.e.-dfiy from Lukannon, Wednes- 

 day Tol>toi, Thursday at Half-way Point (the drive being 

 brought from P.jlavma), Fiid iy at Zipadnie (when the 

 water is smooth the killers go by boat to Zapadnie, but 

 in rough weather the seals are driven to the village), 

 Saturday and Sunday drives are mideupfrom some of 

 the place's driven from earlier in the week, or a number of 

 small drives from several places are united. At North- 

 east Pant drives are made commencing at one end on 

 Monday and continuing round wherever enough seals 

 can bfi found. On St. George diives are made from each 

 rookery in succespion, the killijig ground being just below 

 the village. Some of these driving trails are from a 

 quarter to a mile long, but the longest, from Z ipadnio, is 

 five miles. 



The fur seal is utterly unfitted by nature for an ex- 

 tended and rapid s^fe journey on land. It will progress 

 rapidly for a short disiaoce, but soon stops from sheer ex- 

 haustion. Its fl'ppers are used as feet; the belly is raised 

 clear of the ground, and the notion is a jerky but com- 

 pai-atively rapid lopp. When exhausted tiie animal flop=! 

 over on its side as soon as it stops moving, being unable 

 to stand up. 



The drives are conducted in this manner. As soon as 

 it is light, wMch is between one and two in the morning, 

 several natives make their way between the seals hauled 

 out near a rookery and the water and cut out as large a 

 drive as possible. As it is the habit of the seals when 

 alarmed to get as far as possible fi om any strange object, 

 it follows that they are easily driven in any direction by 

 simply walking behind them waving the arms and mak- 

 ing a noise. The characfc>-r of the ground over which 

 the seals a.re driven is in many places utterly unfit for 

 he purpose; up ^nd down, the steep slopes p£ sand dunes. 



over cinder hills studded with sharp rocks, some places 

 being so bad that they are avoided by the people them- 

 selves; but the seals have been driven over the same 

 ground for many years, and on some of the hills deep 

 paths have been worn by the passing of tens of thous- 

 ands of seals. No attempts have been made to remove 

 the roc lis or to lessen the difiiculties of the passage, and 

 the seals are still driven pell-m«ll over huge rocks and 

 down steep inclines, where many are crushed and injured 

 by the hurrying mass of those behind. When the drive 

 reaches the killing ground it is rounded up and left in 

 charge of a man or boy to await the killing, which be- 

 gins at 7 A. M. A pod of perhaps sixty seals are then 

 cut out of the drive and driven to the killers, who with 

 long wooden clubs stun those seals that are of proper 

 size and condition by a blow or two on top of the head. 

 The seals that are not killed are then driven away by tin 

 pans and a great noise, and while in an excited and over- 

 heated condition rush as fast as it is possible for a seal to 

 go into the icy-cold waters of Bering Sea. 



It will thus be seen that these seals are subjected on an 

 average from two o'clock in the morning until ten, to a 

 long drive over very rough ground, then to a dense herd- 

 ing where they are continuady in motion and crowding 

 each other, thence to an intense excitement on the kill- 

 ing ground, and finally in a condition little better than 

 madness rushing into icy cold water. Uncivilized and 

 partly civilized man has no pity for dumb brutes, and as 

 these drives are conducted entirely by the natives, who 

 preler indolence in the village to the discomforts of a 

 drive in the fog and rain, it follows that the seals are 

 often driven much faster than they should be and abso- 

 lutely without thought or care. But this is not all. The 

 seals that are spared soon haul out again near a rookery, 

 and perhaps the very next day are obliged to repeat the 

 process and again and again throughout the season, un- 

 less in the meantime they have crawled out on a bench to 

 die or have sunk exhausted to the bottom. The deaths of 

 these seals are directly caused as I shall explain, and as 

 far as I am aware it is mentioned now for the first time. 



A seal body may be said to consist of three parts, an 

 inner, which is the flesh, bones, etc., a ring of fat sur- 

 rounding this of from one to four or five inches thick, and 

 then the skin which carries the fur. I think it will be 

 readily seen that a forced drive for a long distance over 

 rough ground, up and down hiUs and over and among 

 huge boulders and fine sand, with a subsequent herding, 

 and then after a most violent exercise a sudden b:ith in 

 icy cold water, must of necessity disturb that equilibrium 

 of vital forces which is essentiai to the good health of any 

 animal. It is known that the stomachs of the fur seals on 

 the islands contain no food, and that in all probability 

 many of them have fasted for several weeks. When 

 driven into the water the seals are weak from two causes, 

 the drive and lack of food; before they can secure food 

 they must rest, and rest is only obtainable at the expense 

 of that most vital necessity of these animals, their fat. I 

 remember looking with great curiosity for the cause of 

 death of the first dead seal that I found stranded on the 

 beach. Externally there was nothing to indicate it, but 

 the first stroke of the knife revealed instantly what I am 

 confident has been lhe cause of death of countless thous- 

 ands of fur seals, it had been chilled to death; not a trace 

 remained of the fat that bad once clothed its body and 

 protected the vital organs wichin. Since the day that it 

 had escaped from the drive it had consumed all its fat in 

 the effort to keep warm, and nothing remained but to lie 

 down and die. I opened many after this and always dis- 

 covered the same, but sometimes an additional cause, a 

 fractured skull perhaps. I have even noted tho.^e left 

 behind in a drive and watched them daily with the same 

 result in many cases. At first they would revel in the 

 ponds or wander among the sand dunes, but in a few days 

 their motions became distinctly slower, the curvature of 

 the spine becamn lessened; eventually the poor brutes 

 would drag their hind flippers as they moved, and in a few 

 days more become food for the foxes. In every case the 

 fat had disappeared. 



It will be seen also that by this driving process the two 

 or three-year olds, which are the only ones killed for 

 their skins, are culled out almost completely from the 

 seals which visit these islands, and therefore that very 

 few male seals ever reach a greater age, consequently 

 there are not enough young bull-i growing up to supply 

 even the yearly loss on the rookeries, much less to pro- 

 vide for any increase. 



It should also be thoroughly understood that until a 

 cow seal is three years old she is but a cipher so far as a 

 natm-al increas-e of the rookeries is concerned, and that a 

 male seal must be at least seven or eight years old before 

 he can possibly secure a footing on the rookeries. 

 During these three and eight years they have to run the 

 gauntlet of the poachers. If they escape the driving — 

 and this seems impossible — they have their natural 

 enemies to encounter, sharks and killer whales, so that 

 taken altogether nearly everything is against this in- 

 ert ase. 



During the eight years minority of the few male seals 

 that have escaped their enemies it is safe, I think, to 

 assume that at least four summers were spent in getting 

 an experience of the drives. Does any one think that 

 they were then capable of fllling their proper functions 

 on the rookeries? 



But some one is not satisfied with the accidental land- 

 ing of the seals on the beaches from whence they can be 

 easily driven. Along the sea edge of the rookeries are 

 many small outlying rocks, on which the young male 

 seals congi egate in large numbers and survey the rook- 

 erieti from which they are disbarred by their inferior size 

 and strength. An old bull seal will suffer himself to be 

 slaughtered rather than yield an inch of his chosen loca- 

 tion. The cows are so timid that only the greatest ex- 

 ertions of the bulls prevents their being stampeded, while 

 as to the *'hollu8chickie" the sight, even the scent, of a 

 man or strange object will drive them peU-mell instantly 

 into the watei*. 



The natives have been provided with whistles, and 

 wh'-n a boat finds itself near a rookery (and a pretense 

 for its presence is easily found) good use is made of them 

 with a consequent confusion among the seals and a prob- 

 able increase in the next morning's drive. And yet a 

 stranger on the islands is bimbooz'ed with the informa- 

 tion that his presence a few yards from the v llage is 

 fr. U2;ht with great danger to the C(jmpany'ri interests. 



The breeding seals on the rookeries represent the 

 principal of the sealing industry, while the quota of 

 .100,000 skins taken annually for the past twenty years is 



the interest on the principal. Owing to poaching and the 

 effects of driving and culling, the principal has become 

 seriously impaired, so that it is no longer possible to pay 

 this large rate of inierest. The work on the islands has 

 been directed entirely to collecting this interest at any 

 cost. The principal was left to take care of itself. 



The decrease in seal life began about ten vears ago, 

 before then it was an easy matter to secure 100,000 skins 

 a year from St. George's Island, the rookeries near the 

 village of St. Paul and at Northeast Point. The rookeries 

 at Polavina and Zapadnie were then never driven from. 

 But ten years ago it became absolutely necessary in order 

 to secure the full quota of skins to make drives from these 

 places, and the custom has been continued since, to the 

 great injury of the seal business. 



But these drives from Polavina and Zapadnie and the 

 decrease in seal life seem to have been carefully concealed 

 from the Government and others interested in the welfare 

 of the seals, in fact it has been strongly put forth in the 

 reports of the Treasury agents in charge and elsewhere, 

 that the seals have actually greatly increased in numbers; 

 but a comparison of the sketches alone in Mr. Elliott's 

 "Monograph of the Seal Irlands," made in 1878-4 and 

 6, with the actual condition of affairs at present on the 

 islands will convince any one that the opinions and reports 

 of political appointees are almost worthless when dealing 

 with the fate of the fur seal. 



How can it be otherwise? Their tenure of office exists 

 only with that of the Secretary of the Treasury ; with every 

 change of that office new men who know nothing of seals 

 are sent up, and these men are entirely dependent on the 

 seal company even for their passage and board while 

 there. All visitors to the islands are regarded as inter- 

 lopers and meddlers. 



It may be interesting for a moment to compare the 

 management of the Russian side of Bering Sea with our 

 own. Dr. Stejaeger, of the National Museum, who has 

 spent several seasons on the Commander Islands, assures 

 me that instead of decreasing the fur seals there are 

 actually increasing in numbers. A comparison of the 

 Russian ideas of seal management with our own will 

 readily show the reason. The necessity for great care 

 in the driving and management of the drives S'^ems to be 

 a fixed fact in the minds of the Russian officials and 

 natives of the Commander Islands, while on the Pribylov 

 Islandsnottheslightestintereatistakeninthematter. ' On 

 the Russian side the natives are firm in the belief that their 

 interests lie in the proper care of the seals, consequently 

 when a drive is made it is composed of manv small drives 

 carefully selected and slowly driven, so that the large 

 and small seals unfit for killing are gradually weeded out, 

 and when the drive reaches the killing grounds it is com- 

 posed almost entirely of killable seals. 



On the American side, on the contrary, the seals are 

 driven as fast as possible, the only ones weeded out being 

 those too weak to go further, while of those round*? d up 

 on the killing ground by far the greater number are 

 allowed to escape. Out of a drive of 1,103 counted by me 

 only 120 were killed; the rest were released. On the 

 Russian side it is a settled fact that the islands and seals 

 belong to the Russian Government, and that the company 

 taking the skins has only certain restricted rights for 

 that purpose; but on the American side it seems to be a 

 settled fact, at least in the minds of the company's people, 

 that they own the seals and the islands, while the duty of 

 the Government is to collect the tax and appoint agents 

 to subserve the interests of the company only. The na- 

 tives are utterly dependent on the seal company for their 

 support, and while having a very vague idea that some- 

 how the Government is a big thing, they natm-ally look 

 to the company for everything affecting their interests. 



Sealers have no doubt about the fate that would be 

 their lot if caught poaching on the Commander Islands or 

 within three miles of their shores, and accordingly have 

 given them a wide berth; but they have heretofore done 

 as they pleased about the PribyloV Islands and even on 

 the rookeries. la the absence of the revenue cutters the 

 islands are utterly defenseless and liable at any time to 

 be raided. 



I have only touched lightly upon several questions of 

 the sealing industry and have by no means exhausted 

 the subj' ct, but enough has been said, I think, to show 

 that if an industry which eighteen month'^ ago was ex- 

 pected to pay the Government a net profit of over 2,000 

 per cent , and is, besides, a great natural exhibit, the 

 only one of the kind America can jiroduce, is to be saved, 

 reform is necessary. For twenty years the fur seal has 

 been the spoil of politics and the victim of the poacher. 

 Inexperience on the one hand and avarice on the other 

 have well nigh ruined the industry in American waters. 



There are then two ch'ef causes of the decrease of seal 

 life on the Pribylov Islands— poaching in Bering Sea and 

 the driving and culling of the seals on the islands. The 

 remedy in simple. 1st. No seals should be killed by any 

 one at any time in the waters of Bering Sea. 2d. All 

 seals driven on the islands should be killed, none should 

 be driven and again allowed to enter the sea. 



These remedies are not new. Nearly twenty years ago 

 Capt. Daniel Webster, whose knowledge and experience 

 of sealing are second to none, said, pointing to the drive, 

 "Every one of them should be killed, none should be 

 allowed to return to the water," and gave reasons which 

 while unsupported by evidence then, and which in view 

 of the immense abundance of seal life seemed absurd at 

 the time, are now beginning to be accepted as true. 



There should also be a close time for at least five years 

 to allow the rookeries to be replenished, and then by 

 careful management by a bureau and employees of the 

 Government, trained in the knowledge and care of 

 animal life, a rich and profitable industry will be saved. 



William Palmeb. ■ 



U. S. National Museum, Washington, D. C. 



A Woodcocb: in Brooklyn.— A woodcock flew into 

 the new Brooklyn Post-Oflice building last Friday, was 

 killed by a workman and was sent to be stuffed for Col. 

 Booth, the superintendent. 



QoiifG TO California.— A person can take a seat in a palace 

 car at Dearborn Station any aflerronn aai go over the Atctiison, 

 Topeka and Sant.a F6 Riillrosd to S m Fraucisnn, Los Angeles or 

 San Diepo wisliout clianL'i'iff cars. Tti- fiiat, exp;-=-ss oa this line 

 mak 8 ar, least, twenty-four hours q.iick-r tiai ^ to L )s Angeles 

 than any otaer liae, and in fact the Santa Fe is the only ttior- 

 oughly comfortable route to take. The oflBce is atNo.SlgOlark 

 street, ChiB&so— Adv. 



