The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-01-11
Killing Sea Elephsnts.


"Most of the time was spent in killing
,ea elephants, and rough work il was.
The animals had been hunted so much
that they only came ashore on one part
Of the island called Long Beach. and
where there WAS heavy sea breaking
all the time; Sd the on Y way to do was
70 drive the an mails off shore and to
keep them OF, so that they would come
ashore in other places where they could
be killed. The long beach was covered
with thousands of elephants in regular
herds, like cattle. about fifty to a lot,
and each under the lead OF big male
called beach-master. Our business
was to take long seal-skin whips, sail
into the herds, and drive them off.
which was no fool of a job. We walked
along about an eighth of mile apart,
and had some close scrapeS sometimes.
Some of the beach-masters were thirty
feet long and weighed three tons. They
didn't seem to know what fear meant,
and you could walk right among
them and give them the whip right and
left. and then the roaring and Hopping
commenced Fight? l should say so.
There was 'Portug' with our gang that
was about as reckless chap Is L ever
saw; he d rush into crowd and run right
up OH the back of big fellow and lath-
er it with his whip for minute, and
/ then slide off. One day he d d this
when we were in crowd of big ones.
Ills foot slipped, and he slid right over
the critters shoulder. and the next
minute the bull had him. He had on 4
thick canvas shirt and overalls, and by
the slack of the latter the bull
grabbed him and tossed him ten ieet
in the air, his whip going one way and
he another. He landed in the sand all
right.
Sometimes we didn't come off so
well. One of our men was tossed by
the leg, the bull biting right through 1t,
cleaning him out for good. But the
worst lights | saw were between the
/ bulls themselves. If a young bull got
into herd by mistake it was goodbye,
John. The old bull would take m by
the neck, tear great pieces of sin of,
and if he could get a good hold toss him
ten or twelve feet up, and when he
landed grab him again, and in the long
run sometimes Kill him. When we got
around to another beach where the wa
ter was smooth, and here we shot them
or knocked the smaller ones over with
clubs, and tried out the BUILDER for oil
and barreled it up. TO get 20 tbs
beach YOU had to cross two glaciers, and
there we had hutS and lived part OF the
time"
"Were there any other animals
there"
'Never saw anything except BIRDS.
But they made up for the rest There
was millions of EN-: big birds called the
albatrOsS, and another called the killer
"a gull three times As Big aS those fell
lcrS YOU see down the bay. They Were
Just like eagles; didn't eat fish, but
killed other birds and ate meat: and
when we set to skinning an elephant, |
tell you it was nip and tuck sometimes.
Why, I've seen them @ulls make 4 rush
at bull we were at work on, and Light
right on the critter and tear the meat
out of our hands, so that we'd have
to stop and 20 for them with clubs.
The air would be black with them. and
the noise was enough to set YOU crazy.
One of the gullS came near killing one
of the men, and then saved his life af
ter all. He was climbing over the gla-
cier, when the bird made a dash at him
and knocked him off. The man threw
out his arm and grabbed the bird by the
leg, and down they both went, sliding
about one hundred and fifty feet, the
bird Hopping and half holding him up.
and that was all that saved him.
Some time in the year the elephants
immigrate, and when they come back
Young ones are born. There's curl
Gus thing-the young critters suck for
while and then are let on the beach,
actually growing fat without anything
to eat. These we never killed. The
young amt white like seals, but black,
and don't show the snout until they get
three years old or so. That what
they are called sea elephants for. as
they have a sort of trunk that is about
ten inches long, and when they get mad
it S blown up in some way and looks
like regular elephants trunk. ~
\. Sun.