74 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Been seiiarated ont, ns tlie drive went on, before tbe steep ascent was reached. Tims far I have only 
with certainty discovered one female driven across the inonntain. 
The road was very wet and slippery, both from the long grass and the smooth clay which here 
forms the chief material covering tho underlying rock, and the ascent was consequently a very labo- 
rious one. The middle jiart of it is very steep, and in one j)lace steps have been mit in tho ground so 
as to facilitate the climbing. The altitude of the pass forming the highest point on this drive is about 
800' [760 feet]. 
The seals soon commenced to give ont, and the men then resorted to all sorts of goading them on, 
short of killing, in order to get as many of the seals as possible alive to the killing-ground at the vil- 
lage, since they wanted the meat badly. Only when a seal could absolutely go no farther, after having 
been urged on by being poked and beaten with the sticks, only then it was killed and skinned. But 
not oven then in all cases, for if it was a small and therefore particularly tender animal, it was grabl)ed 
by the hind legs and dragged along [pi. G2«] until some steep declivity was reached, down whicli it 
■was then flung. Yet a good many had to be killed along the road. Little girls and still smaller boys 
arrived now with big skin bags on their backs [pi. 621<] to carry home the skins and choice parts of the 
meat. The last division, as well as abovit one hundred seals from Palata Kookery, reached the level 
ground behind Glinka village at 10 a. m. and were given a rest there. 
At 11 o’clock the final drive in four divisions was begun toward the killing-ground near the beach 
(not 300 yards) west of the village. Down the steep embankment (fully 60 feet high) the numerous 
drives have worn a deep channel-like rut in the slippery clay, and down this chute the animals 
came rushing as if it were a toboggan slide [pi. 631)] . They slid down in bunches together, and became 
piled up at the bottom in big heaps. As they were now driven over the sand of the beach, a few 
undersized seals and a solitary matka or two were sorted out and allowed to escape into the water, 
but the final culling was done on the killing-ground. Altogether 47 undersized animals were thus 
driven over the mountains and finally jjeriuitted to go back into the sea. 
These young animals let loose on the sandy beach afforded great sport for the younger generation 
of future seal-killers, if seals there be left when they grow up. Four little tots, five i-o six years old, 
with sticks in their hands, tried to drive into tho water two young seals too tired to advance farther 
and asking nothing but to be allowed to lie down and rest. The seals resented the attack, and the 
four little fellows hit them over the head and the snouts with their sticks, as they had seen their 
parents do with the big ones, and finally succeeded in driving them into the sea.‘ 
Tlie above descriptions give a fair idea of drives on Copper fsland astliey were 
and as they are. They demonstrate the tremendous difficulties and the hardships on 
the seals. A glance at the ma])s of the Co])per Island rookei'ies and a study of tlie 
descriptions I liave given of them in another chajiter must convince anybody that there 
is nothing even approaching them on the Pribylofs. 
ISTot so on Bering Island. There the drives are short and easy on the seals. The 
killing-ground is located scarcely more than 500 yards from the main rookery, and 
right in front of the summer village where the men live during the sealing season. The 
longest drive ever taken is only 1.^ miles long; the road is over level ground, mostly 
covered with grass, and the ascent up the coast escarpment is easy and only 30 feet high. 
A grave feature of the Bering Island drives, however, consists in the mixing in of 
females and pui>s with the bachelors throughout the season. I have elsewhere in this 
report treated of this side in detail, but it may not be superfluous to give an account 
of one of the largest drives last summer on North Beef Eookery, Bering Island, which 
took place August 22. 
It being necessary to wait for low water, we did not start until 7 o’clock a. m. The 
morning was raw (about + 50° F.) and dark, a drizzling fog enveloping the scene and 
' I am sorry to say that a good deal of unnecessary suffering was caused tbe animals simply for the 
fun of it. The ])eople can hardly be blamed. They are certainly not particularly cruel by nature, 
but on the other liaud they evidently have no idea of such a thing as cruelty to animals. They have 
grown up from babyhood among these scenes, and their feelings arci naturally blunted. It must not 
be forgotten, however, that in the midst of our own civilization more cruelty to animals is practiced 
in a single day than in a whole season on the seal islands. 
