The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-09-25
SEALERS PAID OFF.
Good Wages For the Crew of
the Henry Dennis.
ONE HUNTER NEARLY LOST.
Fish CommissfonsR Alexander TeIls Of
the Seats Habits-Drivsn From
tho Rookeries.


United States Shipping Commissioner d.
| A. Mckenzie. The total amount of their
wages was about Sl2,5oo. The whole crew
consisted of twenty-five men. One hun
ter, George Wallace, who lives in Tacoma,
had 400 skins to his credit. The hunters
| received 81 for each skin they took. so
Wallace's earnings for the season were
1885. The other FIVE hunters received
from 81 900 10 81 500 each, all but one who
had only 800 skins to his credit. 81, 900.
All the hunters but Wallace live in Cali
| fornia and they leave for their home i'm
| mediately.
Capt. Miner said his brother, who was
| one Of the hunters, came very near being
| lost of the Alaska coast early in the sea-
son during snowstorm. He got away go
| far that he never could have found the
vessel. but tho captain followed in the
course the boat took on leaving, and by
mere chance ran onto it after going about
| seven or eight miles.
| 1t is stated on good authority by govern
| ment officials who have been studying the
habits of the seals. that not more than
half a. many seals were on the islands
this season as there were last, and that
| during the past five years fully nine-tenths
They account for this by the fact that the
herds are pursued by the sealers as they
proceed northward, and their course is
detected toward some other rookeries,
| probably on the Japan coast. The fact
that they seem TO have been so numerous
| on the Japan coast this season gives some
weight to this theory.
| Capt Miner says seals were much thicker
in the open sea this season than he has
| ever seen them before, but he thinks it
| just happened to be his luck to run onto
| larger herds. The fact that the catches
outside of Bering sea were so heavy this
year he explains by the extremely favor
able weather. He took 1,o00 skins without
| meeting with any poor weather. Part Of
the time the vessel would lie for days
almost in the same spot. Another reason
! he assigns for heavier catches is that
| hunters are becoming more expert in their
work. The number of seals killed and
lost he estimates at from 2 to 3 per cent Of
| the whole number killed.
Aside from these general facts the only
news Of interest Capt. Miner brought
down was regarding the seizure Of the
| British schooner Oscar and Hattie at Attu
| island, the westernmost of the Aleutian
chain. She was seized by the United
| States steamer Ranger as the Dennis was
| on the way home.
The Dennis brought in as passengers
| from Boring sea A. B. Alexander, of the
| United States fish commission, and Lieut..
| Beatty, of the United States ship Ranger.
| Lieut.. Beatty proceeded to Washington,
| Mr.. Alexander 10 stopping at the Occi-
| dental, and will remain few days. Since
March 20 he has been engaged in making
| study of seal life on the ocean, three
| others of the commission being engaged
| in the same work. Concerning the results
| of his work he said:
| 1t has been discovered that nursing seals
| 60 farther from the rookeries than the British
| commissioners have been willing to admit
| Hunters freely declare that they have been
| found as far $50 miles southwest of the rock
| cries. The British commissioners have con-
| tended that they never went more than thirty
miles from the islands. We have have also
| been investigating the food of seals by an ex-
animation of the contents of the stomachs of
| those killed. We found in them pieces OF cod
fish, herring, crusctacese of various kinds MOSS
| bottom fab from sixty to seventy-fve fathoms
| depth, school fieh, smelts and crabs. Yes, the
| habits and instincts of these animals are an in
| teresting study. For forty years they have been
| resorting every year 10 the same isiands--the
| Pribiloff and Copper islands-for the pur-
| pose Of bringing forth and nursing their
! young. There have been tales about other
| rookeries, but we have never been able to find
| any. 1t is certainly wonderful instinct which
| enables the cows to go of hundreds of miles in
! search of food and to return in q few days to
| the exact spot where they left their cubs, aud
| each to select her own offspring by Its cry from
| among the thousands on the rookery. The Pc
| Rod of CESSATION in the seal is exactly twelve
| months. and the cows are always pregnant
| The cubs are not self-supporting until three or
four months after leaving the rookeries, so that
| pelagic sealing 10 doubly destructive, except
| during few months In the fall and winter.
| On the islands the big bulls arc easily distin-
| guishable, but the young bulls and hefsrs are
| indisting uishabie. and at sea the males cannot
| be distingu iahed from the females.