The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1882-07-15
Killing Seals

Droves of cattle, sheep or swine on
their way to market are common sights;
q rarer spectacle is drove of turkeys,
though this is now and then seen at some
western shipping point, but it could
hardly be imagined that seals could be
driven to market. Yet, according to
recent bureau publication, this is the
practice in Alaska.
The seals are not found on the coast of
the mainland; but they frequent the
Pribyloo Islands in the Behring sea.
The seals caught here are not like those
of Labrador, which are taken more for
their oil than for their skins, but are the
genuine fur seal, whose soft, warm
coats eventually enfold the forms of SO.
ciety bellies. The islands are cold, bleak
desolate places, bare of timber, and in
the summer time almost always over
flowing with thick fogs or clouds
shutting out the rays of the sun, but yet
they are pleasant to the seals who like
cool temperature. The seals begin to
appear at the islands in May, the first
comers being invariably bulls. They
select for themselves plots of ground on
the bench, and as later arrivals attempt
to dispossess them, desperate combats
take place. They fight entirely with their
mouths, and while their bodies writhe
with exertion and rage, their heads dart
out and back with surprising swiftness.
:. Their teeth tear out deep cutters in one
another's sides, the blood streams down,
and furious roaring mixed with whist
ling sounds, never ceases while the bat
tie lasts. These fights are always be-
tween males, and ends as soon as one
gives up the coveted position to the
other. Last May, one old bull fought
between forty and fifty battles, and when
tho fighting season was over he lorded it
proudly over his family of fifteen or
twenty females, although one of his eyes
had been gonged out and his front was
covered with gashes. When the males
take up their positions they must remain
on guard day and night, so that they
have no opportunity to go after food un-
til the end of the season, in the early
part of August. Hence they fast for
three months or more. When they
come up from the sea they are so fat that
the blubber is packed about their shoul-
ders in unsightly masses. At the end of
the season they are lean, limp, abject and
spiritless, hardly able to crawl back into
the sea.
The cows or female seals generally
of June. The bulls then have their last
desperate fights, and those who remain
in possession of eligible portions of the
beach monopolize the society of the fe-
males. AS result of this arrangement
about two-thirds of the youthful male
seals are cut off from female companion
ship. These seals are known as the
bachelors and herd together by thousands
L.
times miles distant. These seals are the
ones captured for their furs, and they
are actually driven along over the ground
to the slaughter fields. The Aleuts en-
ployed by the company which has a
lease of the seal fisheries slip in between
the doing seals and the water. The first
impulse of the seals when they see men
in the way they turn and scramble up
the land. The Aleuts follow keeping
the seals together and driving them
ahead as if it were q herd of swine they
were directing. Singular as it may seem
in view of the unwieldliness of the seal
when on land, it is asserted when hard
pressed, q seal can lope along as fast as
man can run, but it is soon exhausted
and falls down helplessly Ordina-
rily drove of seals can travel
at the rate of half mile an hour.
Three or four men can manage as many
Thousand seals. There are frequent
halts to allow the seals to rest The
painting animals fan themselves with
their hind fippers. and when they have
gotten their wind again, shout and the
clatter OF bones from the Aleuts starts
the herd on it's shambling, shuffiing way
again. The young males are as docile as
sheep; an old bull will fight sooner than
be driven, and if such one is caught in
herd he is allowed to drop. behind, as
his fur is of little or no value.
The author of this report, Mr. Henry
W. Elliot, is a naturalist attached to the
Smithsonian institution, and writes from
personal observation. He thinks that if
only the bachelor seals are hunted and
the breeding places are not disturbed,
the seal lands of Alaska will remain a
regular source of support to the fur
trade. But if the breeding grounds are
hunted, the seal will be exterminated or
driven away. Many years ago the shores
of Patagonia and the Antarctic islands
swarmed with millions of fur seals, and
now they have become rare animals
where once they abounded.