The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1890-09-13
WHERE FUR SEALS ARE BORN.
The Pribylov Islands, Where Poachers
Dodge the Slow Cutters.

Dodge the Slow Cutters.
From Mr.. HIATT, who was last year
in Behring sea on the schooner Hen
nv Deayes, which was overhauled
by the cutter Rush about 100 miles
east of Pribylov islands, learned
several interesting particulars.
The latter part of June myriads
of seals begin to assemble on the
islands, where they breed, and from
whence the other seals make daily
trips to the adjacent waters for food
for their own or any other baby
seal, for they are gregarious and
very communistic, the young not
recognizing parents or parental au-
thority, consequently many of them
come to bad end.
The Pribylove islands consist of
the Islands of St. Paul, st. George
and Otter island. They lie in line
from north to south. The largest
and most northerly, St. Paul, is per-
haps a mile long, or rather nearly
round. Directly south one and a
half miles is the nearly round rock
called Otter island, and not more
than two miles south of this is st.
George, which is, perhaps, a mile
long and one-fourth of a mile wide.
These islands lie low, are composed
of sand principally, with here and
there a rocky beach, and on
these kelp-covered, rocky beaches
the seals crawl and lie as thick as
sardines in a can, making the
welkin ring with their roaring and
clumsy, uncouth antics, for the
seal on land is the clumsiest of all
animals, and alwas, when in masses,
appears to be in fighting humor.
The little seals are born, and soon
after they clumsily flop to the water,
and we may say, after reading Pres
ident Harrison's last proclamation,
enter upon the duties of life with
that zeal (seal) an assurance of
such protection gives.
Not so the older ones; they have
been there before; and leaving their
festive progeny to play about the
counters of Mr.. Blaine's revenue
cutters, they climb upon the side
of a wave and placing one fiipper
over their heads, as Mr.. HIATT tells
US, have one of their number keep
a lookout, and rocked thus "in the
cradle of the Deep" shove away ex-
actly like a man, and continuously
during daytime in smooth water.
Sometimes they ship with the head
under water, at times raising the
head (the eyes closed in slumber)
for breath. The seal lies all on the
surface, and when the sentinel gives
an alarm silently sinks, without a
splash, coming up soon with in
quiring eyes to see what was the
matter. At night they feed, and
then is the time a sensible Goldfish
will make himself as scarce as
policeman at a row. The sealers
use shotguns mostly. Occasionally
young seal, when wounded, fights
viciously, and the old ones are as
hard to kill as a poor joke. An
average large seal is about eight
feet long and will weigh from 800
to 400 pounds. The young, when he
takes to the water, is about eighteen
inches long, and is so exuberant
and happy that he hardly knows
what to do with himself, and leads
a rollicking life until some poacher
comes along and seals his fate.
When on the islands the natives
place fence between the seals and
water, then drive them to an open
place still further away, and then
the slaughter begins, and the lumi-
nous, pleading brown eyes look in
vain for mercy, for great corpora
ton wants their coats, and dainty
girls, who faint at sight of mouse,
pay a premium for their destruc-
ton. The presence of the cutters
in the north gives kind of an air of
dig nifty to those seas, and, possibly,
certain amount of assurance to
the seals; but the poacher smiles
audibly and gleefully drops his
dories and "shoots like the shadow
of ghost on his sleeping victim,'
which he always tries to shoot IN
the back of the head and get hold
of quickly, for now and then the
animal sinks and is lost. Far away
a line of smoke appears, the boets
are recalled, every stitch of canvas
spread, and often before the cutter
folks can see them, are safely away,
or, if boarded, hide their skin under
coal or in some cute way the ordl-
nary cutterman doesn't know Of
J. T. A. Bul6nch in Port Townsend
Leader.
The Opium Habit.
4 L. ~