The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1882-04-08
Seals Killed for their Fur Coats.


Droves of cattle, sheep, or swine on their
way to market are common sights; rarer
spectacle is a drove of turkeys, though this
is now and then seen at some Western ship
ping points, but 1t could hardly be imagined
that seals could be driven to market. Yet,
according to recent Census Bureau pub
hcation, this is the practice in Alaska.
The seals are not found on the coast Of
the mainland, but they frequent the Priby-
loo Islands in the Behring Sea- The seals
caught here are not ike 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 society bellies. The islands are
bleak, cold, desolate 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 yet they
are pleasant to the seals, who ike cool
temperature. The seals begin to appear at
the islands in May, the first comen being
invariably bulls. They select for them
selves plots of ground on the beach, and as
later arrivals attempt to dispossess them,
desperate eombats take place. They fight
entirely with their mouths, and while their
fat bodies writhe with exertion and rage.
their heads dart out and back with surpris-
ing swiftness. Their teeth tear out deep
cutters in one another's hides, the blood
streams down, end furious roaring, mixed
with shrill, whistling sounds, never ceases
while the battle lasts These fights are
always between males, and end as room 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 proud
" over his family of fifteen or twenty fe-
males, although one of his eyes had been
gOuged 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 opportuni-
ty to 90 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 unsighly masses. At the end
Of the season they are lean, limp, abjeet and
spiritless, hardly able to crawl back into the
sea.
The cows or female seals generally 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 mouopolixe
the society of the females. AS result Of
this arrangement about two-thirds Of the
young male seals are cut off from female
eompanionship These seals are known as
the bachelors, and herd together by thous-
ands away from the breeding grounds,
sometimes miles distant These seals are
the ones captured for their fnrs, and they
are actually driven along over the ground
to the slaughter fields The Aleuts EN-
ployed by the company which has lease
Of the seal fisheries, slip in between the
dozing seals and the water. The first i'm
pulse of the seals when startled is 20 make
for the water, but when they see men in
the way they turn and scramble up the land.
The Aleuts follow after, keeping the seals
together and driving them ahead as If il
was herd of swine they were directing.
Singular as it may seem in view of the I'M
wieldiness Of a seal when on land, it is as
serted that when hard pressed seal can
lope along as fast as man can run, but it
is soon exhausted and falls helpless. Or
dinarily drove of seals travels at the rate
Of half a 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 Them
selves with their hind fippers, and when
they have gotten their wind again a shout
and the claiter of bones from the Aleuts
starts the herd on its shambling, scufiaing
way again The young males are as docile
as sheep; an old bull viii fight rather than
be driven, and if such one is caught in a
herd he is allowed to drop behind, as his
fur is of little or no value.
The author of this report, Mr.. Henry
W. Elliott, is naturalist attached Ia 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
islands of Alaska win remain a regular
source of supply to the fur trade, But if
the breeding grounds are hunted the seals
are 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.