BERING SEA— THE ALEUTS. 



275 



which are only four months old (their furs being most highly prized) are 

 doomed without exception ; while of the others that have attained an age of 

 one, two, or three years, only the males are killed. For several days after the 

 massacre, the mothers swim about the island, seeking and loudly wailing for 

 their young. 



From October 5 St. Paul is gradually deserted by the sea-bears, who then 

 migrate to the south and re-appear towards the end of April, the males arriving 

 first. Each seeks the same spot on the shore which he occupied during the 

 preceding year, and lies down among the large stone blocks with which the flat 

 beach is covered. About the middle of May the far more numerous females 

 begin to make their appearance, and the sea-bear families take full possession 

 of the strand. Each male is the sultan of a herd of females, varying in number 

 according to his size and strength ; the weaker brethren contenting themselves 

 with half a dozen, while some of the sturdier and fiercer fellows preside over 

 harems 200 strong. Jealousy and intrusion frequently give rise to terrible bat- 

 tles. The full-grown male sea-bear, who is about four or five times larger than 

 the female, grows to the length of eight feet, and owes his name to his shaggy 

 blackish fur, and not to his disposition, which is far from being cruel or savage. 



Armed with a short spear, a single Aleut does not hesitate to attack the co- 

 lossal whale. Approaching cautiously from behind in his baidar until he reach- 

 es the head, he plunges his weapon into the animal's flank under the fore fin, 

 and then retreats as fast as his oar can carry him. If the spear has penetrated 

 into the flesh, the whale is doomed ; it dies within the next two or three days, 

 and the currents and the waves drift the carcass to the next shore. Each 

 spear has its peculiar mark by which the owner is recognized. Sometimes the 

 baidar does not escape in time, and the whale, maddened by pain, furiously 

 lashes the water with his tail, and throws the baidar high up into the air, or 

 sinks it deep into the sea. The whale-fishers are highly esteemed among the 

 Aleuts, and their intrepidity and skill w^ell deserve the general admiration. Of 

 course many of the w^hales are lost. In the summer of 1831, 118 Avhales were 

 wounded near Kadjack, of which only forty-three were found. The others 

 may have been wafted far out into the sea to regale the sharks and sea-birds, 

 or driven to more distant shores, whose inhabitants no doubt gladly welcomed 

 their landing. Wrangell informs us that since 1833 the Russians have intro- 

 duced the use of the harpoon, and engaged some English harpooners to teach 

 the Aleuts a more profitable method of whale-catching, but we are not told 

 bow the experiment has succeeded. 



The company, besides purchasing a great quantity of walrus-teeth from the 

 Tchuktchi of the Bering's Straits and Bristol Bay, send every year a detach- 

 ment of Aleuts to the north coast of Aliaska, where generally a large number 

 of young walruses, probably driven away by the older ones, who prefer the vi- 

 cinity of the polar ice, spend the summer months. 



The walruses herd on the lowest edge of the coast which is w^ithin reach of 

 the spring tideSc When the Aleuts prepare to attack the animals, they take 

 leave of each other as if they were going to face death, being no less afraid of 

 the tusks of the walruses than of the awkwardness of their own companions. 



