Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1876-06-24
The Story of the Seal.

There is probably no part of the
earth's surface, used for farming or
stock raising. that produces so hand
some yield to the acre as the narrow
beaches of the Prybilov islands in Beh-
st. Paul's, with 81 120 acres, st. George,
with about 1000 acres, Otter island,
mile and half long and less than half
mile wide, and Walrus island, mere
flat rock, rising but little above the surf,
a quarter of mile long and hundred
yards wide. The first two have together
seventy -one miles of coast line, but so
much of the shore is bold and rocky
that only eighteen and three quarter
miles are visited by the seals.
On st. George several thousand sea
lions have taken possession of half a
mile more of landing. The beaches on
which they breed are narrow reaches of
sand varying from forty to 150 feet
!. wide, and covering total area of 6, ,387,-
: $40 square feet, or not quite LAT acres
On this area about 100000 seals are
killed yearly, worth $700,000 This is q
yield of 81, 1852 an acre. The United
States government obtains from these
islands arental of $4,000 yearly and
1892, 500 for 100, 900 sealskins. This is
taxing these barren sand beaches to the
amount of 81, 2,150 per acre. Figures
like these deserve consideration, for it
is only by such computations that the
value of fisheries to the country will
ever be made apparent. In the present
case it is satisfactory to know that the
government tax is blessing to the
world.
The total number of seals which
breed annually on the islands is COM
puted at 3,193, $40, and before the re-
strictions placed on the hunt by govern
ment they were killed at the rate of
100000 monthly. This would have ex-
tirpated them in less than five years.
Now the number is limited to 100000 a
year, and-they are said by some obser-
vers to be increasing at the rate of five
per cent annually. The above number
does not include those which are killed,
but the breeding community which is
preserved. OF non-breeders, the num-
Der is estimated at 100000, so that
the total seal population is about 4, 700,-
900. ....... ...,.s
The male seals land first, in the latter
part of April usually, or in May. They
always choose for their resting grounds
or "rookeries" such beaches as are
strewn with large powders, where the
newborn seals can have some protection
against the sweep of the surf. On land
ing they give themselves up entirely to
sleeping, but meanwhile keep sharp
lookout to prevent young bachelors and
old weak patriarchs from coming to the
rookery. This system of natural selec-
tion is advantageous to the race and to
their human pursuers also. It keeps
the stock strong and hardy and sends the
bachelors of less than six years (the age
of maturity to haul themselves up at
some other point, where they collect to-
gether and can be readily herded by the
hunters without alarming the breeders.
The females do not land for month
after, and are then taken possession of
by the male nearest to the point at which
they leave the water. The selection is
not made without tremendous fighting,
and some OF Lhe old seals are wounded
and killed, or driven off. Prof. Elliott
says " 1t appears to be well under
stood principle among the able-bodied
bulls that each one shall remain undis-
turbed on his ground, which is usually
about ten feet square, provided that he
is strong enough to hold it against all
comers. Some of these bulls show won
derful strength and courage. I have
marked one veteran, who was among the
first to take up his position, and that
one on the water line, where at least fifty
or sixty desperate battles we're fought
victoriously by him with nearly as many
different seals, who coveted his position,
and when the fighting season was over
(after the cows have mostly all hauled
up) 1 saw him covered with scars and
gashes, raw and bloody, an eye gouged
out, but lording it bravely over his
harem of fifteen or twenty cows, all
huddled together on the same spot he
had first chosen" The fighting is done
with the mouth, and when the jaws have
closed on foe the effort of shaking
them loose leaves an ugly wound "the
sharp CANNES tearing out deep cutters
in the skin and blubber, or shredding
The happers into ribbon strips"
The families average abcr! fifteen
cows each, and they take up so little
room that space two feet square suffices