Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-05-24
THE SEA ELEPHANT HUNTER.
Exciting Adventures at the End of
the World.

| Exciting Adventures at the End of
| the World.
| FROM the New York Sum-
J A little man with a red face and faded
| out hair. with hands deep in his pockets
roams about one of the resorts in southern
California, and he would attract little or no
attention except by a particularly jolly
smile which ripples over his weather-worn
face on the very slightest provocation. The
writer found him evening at the end of
the long pier looking out on the water with
contemplative expression, and remark
ing upon the beauty of the night. the little
man replied, Yes. this is paradise to me-"
with a curious infection which rather
puZzling until it was known that his mother
was a Swede and his father an Irishman.
How SO? Why he continued, shifting
the soft evening air that came in from the
little bay, because the best part of my life
I spent at the end of the world. right where
they jump Off at Inaccessible Island, down
on the edge of the Antarctic ocean: there
and at kerguelen's Land. l was sea ele-
plant hunter, and I'm so glad to be in such
a country this after all my rovings that
it seems like a regular paradise. l never
believed that I would take up with such
a life. but men curious things. and one
day. when my ship made port at the Cape
of Good Hope, l left her-no matter how
and shipped on board a whaler. They told
me I would come back at the end of year
"-''V',
month 1 shipped
These sea elephant islands are in re-
gion where 1t either SHOWS or rains sleet
all the time" continued the former
elephant hunter. settling himself comforta-
bly, as though for a long talk, land where
l spent two years was the most desolate
place l ever saw The men there told me
that sometimes the sealers died of the hor-
rors or went crazy, and could well believe
them. 1t was all volcanic rock, with not
a tree on 1t, and covered with snow-capped
MOI, foip or,I ylo1 cr1d hn np1yv
sounds we heard were the roaring of the
wind and the crash of icebergs as they
broke off and drifted away. When We
pulled into the harbor and the sealerS came
aboard I wondered how men could get so
low in looks; but I was just as bad in
short time-you couldn't help it. The only
house. if you could call it that was hole
in the ground rooted over with wreckage
and timbers that had washed ashore. and
which the men had piled big rocks to
prevent the roof from blowing away and
to protect it from being crushed by the ice
and snow which in the form of avalanches
sometimes came rushing down from the
mountains. In this hut there was nothing
but table and some seats. The men
bunked on the floor on skins of the sea lion
and feathers of the penguin. Everything
was covered with oil and grease.
After leaving a load of stores the steam
er sailed away and did not see her again
for a year. The stores did not last very
long, and then settled down to what
was regular diet-guls and penguin and
the meat of the sea elephant. | knew that
I had been trapped but ! had the sense to
say nothing about it. as the schooner had
sailed and had signed for two years. The
next day the life began. Raining snow
ing. we were always routed out early in
the morning. The second third day 1
was sent by the boss to kill some penguinS
for breakfast. and / nearly lost my life in
the hunt. A great part of the island
seemed to be covered with these birds; they
were SO thick that it was hard to force
your way through them they pecked at
you viciously on all sides. The penguin
rookery was in big mass of tussock grass
that grew almost high my head. and
the birds had laid it out in streets and lanes
and along them and in them they stood in
groups and droves. The streets We're Slip
perry and undermined by other birds, and
every few steps I broke through into these
cellars and was also attacked by the birds
that came out.
ITO protect myself I laid around with the
club I carried. and finally turned and tried
to run out of the place as the birds came
at me thicker and faster. and nearly craZed
me with their pecking and the noise they
made. 1 was bewildered, and only bys
chance found my way out of the bird city.
into which I had gone further than ! first
intended. thinking to see how large the
rookery was. When / reached camp. COW
cred with blood with my arms full of birds,
the men met me with roar, and saw
that a joke had been put upon me. found
later that they never entered the bird city,
but killed the birds about and on the edge.
1.-The men We're called sealers. but sea
elephants were the game We We're sup
posed to catch big animals. the male being
from fifteen to nearly thirty feet long and
weighing several tons. At one time fifty or
sixty years ago. they fairly covered the
beaches. but they had been killed off so
rapidly that they were confined to one part
of the beach on a side that could not be
approached by sea. So had to travel
over the glaciers and mountains. rolling our
barrels. When near the divide could
look down the elephants that looked like
great black slugs on the white sand. We
crossed down without frightening them.
getting between them and the water. Then
al the word from the boss We made a rush
on them When they saw us they slowly
lifted up their heads. initiating their curious
trunks, that made them look like elephants.
Clumsily they tried to reach the water, but
a sharp blow over the head laid them out.
Once one caught a man by the coat and
tossed him into the herd, where We thought
he would be torn to pieces, as he fell on the
back of old bull, but he escaped after
having the clothes literally torn off him.
Sometimes forty or fifty of the animals
would be killed in hour: then the work
of skinning them began, and the boiling
down. I was soon reeking in oil, and that
was the condition of all the time.
I'm the course of the year l never saw
whole day of sunshine. and sometimes for
weeks the sun did not appear at all. That
soon takes the life out of one, l can tell
you. that and the snow, rain and sieet At
the end of the year some of the men whose
time was up were paid of, perhaps they
had been working on shares. AID they went
to the Cape Of Good Hope: and in a week
or two their money was gone in ways
known only to the sailor, anG several of
the sea elephant hunters came back to the
life of sludge and ice, of dirt and slaughter.
two years too much.' said the little man,
rising from the box on which he had been
sitting