296 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Aug. 19, 1911. 
These skins are usually much sought after by 
the dealers, because, being taken by the natives 
and a certificate from the collector of customs 
to this effect being attached to the catch, they 
can, under the law, be sent abroad to be cleaned 
and dyed and brought back to be sold in our 
markets. The possession of such a certificate is 
considered to add about $10 to the value of the 
skin. 
The Japanese schooners were again trouble¬ 
some. During bad weather, when the natives 
could not go out with their small boats, the 
schooners came in close, and then when the good 
weather came they would work out just ahead 
of the native boats and pick up most of the seals. 
The Japanese sealing schooner Kaise Maru, 
which was seized on May 3, 1909, by the deputy 
marshal at Sitka, is still at that place. The 
crew were charged with killing seals within the 
three-mile limit, and also landing on certain 
islands near by. They were tried at Juneau in 
September of the same year and acquitted, but 
the owners failed to resume possession of their 
vessel after their release. 
In 1909 revenue cutters seized the Japanese 
sealing schooners Saikai Maru and Kinsei Maru 
and charged them with sealing within the three- 
mile limit of the Pribilof Islands. The cap¬ 
tured vessels were taken to Unalaska and later 
the officers and men were carried to Valdez, 
where all were tried and convicted at the No¬ 
vember term of court. Condemnation proceed¬ 
ings against the vessels were instituted, and on 
April 18 of this year the deputy marshal at 
Unalaska sold the vessels with their stores and 
equipment, the Kinsei Maru bringing $4,600 and 
the Saikai Maru $321.50. When seized the 
schooners had 660 seal skins and these sold for 
$21,780. The vessels were purchased by Fred 
Shroeder, of Dutch Harbor, who renamed the 
Kinsei Maru the Elvira, and outfitted and sent 
her out this year on a sea otter cruise. The 
skins sold have been included in the statistical 
tables of this report. 
This year the Treasury Department adopted 
the policy of permitting sealing vessels to take 
on merely enough water to carry them to the 
nearest United States port, or if homeward 
bound, to take them home. Heretofore the ves¬ 
sels have taken aboard water whenever and 
wherever they pleased, thus being enabled to 
extend their cruise indefinitely. Several seal¬ 
ing vessels which visited ports in southeast and 
central Alaska were affected by this rule. Under 
the law no resident of the United States is per¬ 
mitted to furnish supplies to a sealer at any 
time. 
The lease of the North American Commercial 
Company of the Pribilof Islands expired this 
year, and the Government, through this depart¬ 
ment, took possession of the islands. From St. 
Paul Island 10,754 skins were shipped, while St. 
George shipped 2,834, a total of 13,586. 
Plair Seals.—These animals are to be found 
all along the coast of Alaska, occurring in places 
in almost countless numbers. While they form 
a very insignificant part of the commerce in 
which the white traders participate, owing to 
the fact that their fur is worthless, they are of 
immense value to the natives, for from the flesh 
and oil is secured a considerable part of. the 
winter food, while the skins are highly prized 
for covering the kayaks and umiaks, and for 
boot soles, trousers, mittens, clothing bags and 
caps, and when cut into strips make a very strong 
and durable cord. The coast natives also barter 
the flesh, oil and skins with the interior tribes 
for reindeer hides and furs, thus creating a very 
important branch of trade of which it is im¬ 
possible to form an accurate idea, owing to the 
inaccessibility of most of the tribes and the 
secrecy they observe when discussing such mat¬ 
ters with white men. 
Walruses.—This animal, which is not found 
south of the Bering Sea shore of the Aleutian 
chain, was at one time very numerous north of 
there, and the hunting of it and the seal formed 
the principal occupation of the Eskimos during 
the summer. It goes north as the ice breaks 
up in the spring and returns again in the fab, 
stopping but a short time at any spot and keep¬ 
ing close to the ice pack all this time. 
While the hunting was carried on solely by 
the natives, the herd suffered no appreciable 
diminution, but in 1868 the whalers began to turn 
their attention to walrus catching with serious 
results to the natives as set forth in a former re¬ 
port.* 
To many of the Eskimos, especially on the 
Arctic shore, the walrus is almost a necessity 
of life, and the devastation wrought among the 
herds by the whalers has been, and is yet, the 
cause of fearful suffering and death to many 
of the natives. The flesh is food for man 
and dogs; the oil is used for food and for light¬ 
ing and heating the houses; the skin, when 
tanned and oiled, makes a durable cover for the 
large skin boats; the intestines make waterproof 
clothing, window covers and floats; the tusks 
are used for lance or spear points or are carved 
into a great variety of useful and ornamental 
objects, and the bones are used to make heads 
for spears and for other purposes. 
During the first part of every season there is 
but little opportunity to capture whales, they 
being within the limits of the icy barrier. As 
a result much of the whalers’ time during July 
and August was devoted to capturing walruses. 
Men would be landed on the shore in June and 
left to watch for the animals to haul up on the 
beach at certain points. The walrus must either 
come ashore or get on the ice, and when a herd 
is well ashore one or two old bulls are generally 
left on watch. The best shot among the hun¬ 
ters now creeps up, and by a successful rifle 
shot or two kills the guard. Owing to their very 
defective hearing the noise made by the rifle 
does not awaken them. The gun is then put 
aside and each hunter, armed with a sharp ax, 
approaches the sleeping animals and cuts the 
spines of as many of them as possible before 
the others become alarmed and stampede for the 
water and escape. 
The natives hunt the walrus in kayaks, with 
ivory-pointed spears and sealskin line and floats. 
When the animal is exhausted by its efforts to 
escape, the hunters draw near and give the 
death stroke with a lance. 
In 1908 Congress passed an act for the pro¬ 
tection of game in Alaska, and in this the kill¬ 
ing of walrus north of latitude 62 degrees was 
permitted only from Aug. 1 to Dec. 10, both in¬ 
clusive, while no one person was permitted to 
kill more than one. 
This year new regulations were promulgated 
by the Department of Agriculture, and in these 
*The Commercial Fisheries of Alaska in 1905. By John 
N. Cobb, Bureau of Fisheries Document 603, p. 35, 1906. 
the open season for walruses in Bering Sea and 
Strait north of the Kuskokwim River is from 
May i to July i, while all killing in Bristol Bay 
and Bering Sea south of the Kuskokwim River 
is prohibited until 1912. 
As the natives are permitted to kill the walrus 
for food and clothing at any time when in need 
of food, the object of the law, which is to pre¬ 
vent the indiscriminate killing by whites, is ac¬ 
complished, and very few of the animals are 
now killed except by a few sportsmen who visit 
the Bering Sea district in summer. This year’s 
reports indicate that walruses are increasing. 
The inspector of fisheries for Alaska saw a large 
number on the ice in Bristol Bay in May, while 
the master of the trading schooner Helen John¬ 
ston claims to have encountered in Bering Strait, 
near the Diomede Islands, on July 5 a large herd 
of swimming walruses which covered several 
acres of water. Capt. S. F. Cottle, of the steam 
whaler Karluk, reports having seen large pods 
of walruses this year. 
The Purchase of Crawford Notch. 
Boston, Mass., Aug. 12 .— Editor Forest and 
Stream: From recent reports it would seem 
that there are grave doubts whether provision 
was made by the New Hampshire Legislature 
at its last session for the purchase of Crawford 
Notch. While there was almost a unanimous 
sentiment in the house in favor of the purchase, 
there was a difference of opinion regarding the 
amount to be appropriated for the purpose. The 
more ardent friends of the measure desired that 
it be left to the Governor and council to deter¬ 
mine the sum to be paid, but the appropriation 
committee reported in favor of a fixed sum of 
$100,000. The bill as reported was amended by 
the House making the amount dependent on the 
Governor and council. The clerk of the House, 
as it seems, did not incorporate the amendment 
in the bill before sending it to the Senate, but 
pasted a clipping of it on the wrapper inclosing 
the bill. The undiscovered amendment was not 
read and in the hurry of the closing hours the 
bill was passed without the amendment and re¬ 
ceived the signature of the Governor as well as 
those of the speaker of the House and the presi¬ 
dent of the Senate, none of whom discovered 
the amendment or the absence of it. Now the 
Governor and council are in a quandary and 
have applied to the supreme court of the State 
to determine whether the original bill carrying 
the appropriation of a hundred thousand dollars 
as drawn by the engrossing clerk and signed by 
him without the amendment stands as the law, 
or whether the failure of the Senate to pass 
upon the amendment nullifies the whole law. 
The lovers of New Hampshire forests will be 
sadly disappointed if the long-continued work 
of education which has secured favor to the 
purchase of the Notch must be done over again, 
or if the purchase has to be delayed for two 
years more. The court is expected to give an 
early decision, and the supporters of the meas¬ 
ure are hopeful that some way will be found 
for overcoming the error. H. H. Kimball. 
All the game lazvs of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
