The Daily Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Or.) 1876-1883, 1882-04-16
Driving Seals to Market.

marheL III dpOut Sue sdlne- ihsulOU
as one would drive sheep or hogs.
The seals are not found on the
coast of the mainland, but they
frequent the Prybiloo islands in
the Behring Sea. The seals caught
there are not like those Of Labra-
dor, 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 society bellies. The
islands are bleak, cold, desolatc
places, bare of timber, and in the
summer time almost always over
hung with thick fogs or clouds,
shutting out the warm rays of the
sun; but 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 Sc
lect for themselves plots of ground
on the beach, and as later arrivals
attempt to dispossess them, des-
perate combats take place. They
fight entirely with their mouths,
and while their fat bodies writhe
with exertion aud rage, their heads
dart ont and back with surprising
swiftness. Their teeth tear ont
deep cutters in one another's hides
the blood streams down, and fu-
rious roaring, mixed with shrill
whistling sounds, never ceases
while the battle lasts. These
fights are always between males,
and end as SOON as one gives up
the coveted position to the other.
Last May, one old bull fought be-
tween forty and fifty battles, and
when the fighting season was over
he lorded it proudly over his fam
ily of fifteen or twenty females, al
though one of his eyes had been
gouged cut, and his front was COW
cred with gashes. When tho
males take Up their positions, they
must remain on guard day and
night, SO that they have no oppor-
tunity to 60 after food until 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 shoulders in
unsigbtly masses. At the end of
the season they are lean, limp, ab-
iect and spiritless, hardly able 10
crawl back into tho sea.
The cows or female seals eener-
ally make their appearance about
the middle 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 females. As a result of
this arrangement about two-thirds
of the young seals are cut off from
female companionship. These
seals are known as the bachelors,
and herd together by thousands
away from the breeding grounds,
sometimes miles distant. These
seals are tho ones captured for
their furs, aud they are driven
along over the ground to the
fields. The Aleuts en-
ployed by the company which has
a lease of the seal fisheries slip in
between the doing seals aud the
water. The first impulse of the
seals when startled is to make for
the water, but when they sec men
IN the way they turn and scramble
up the land. The Aleuts follow
alter, keeping the seals together
and driving them ahead As if it
was herd OF swine they were d.
recting. Singular as it NAV seem
n view of the nnwieldiness Of
seal when on land, it is asserted
hat when hard pressed seal can
Iope along as fast as man can
run, but it is soon exhausted and
-alls helpless. Ordinarily a drove
,t seals travel at the rate of half
nile an hour. Three or four men
'an manage as many thousand
seals. There are frequent halts to
lllow the seals to rest. The pant
ng animals fan themselves with