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 FUR-SEAL AND THE SEAL ISLANDS. 
 
 3^7 
 
 
 FUR-SEAL AND THE SEAL LSLANDS. 
 
 HY SHKLDON JACKSON, D. D. 
 
 United State! General Agent of Education for Alaska. 
 
 AS the adventurous hunt of the little 
 sable led the hardy Cossacks in that 
 centurj''8 march from the Ural Moun- 
 tains across the wild storm-swept Steppes of 
 Asia to Kamchatka and Bering Sea, so the 
 new-found sea otter in the waters of Alaska 
 lured them on year by year until they had ex- 
 tended the Russian settlements for two thou- 
 sand miles along the American coast. The 
 fur animals were so plentiful and the profits 
 
 so enormous that the hunt became a wild head - 
 long race, so eager that time was not taken 
 for the building of ships or the procuring 
 of trained seamen. Boats were hastily con- 
 structed of planks fastened together with 
 rawhide or sealskin thongs, and in these un- 
 seaworthy floats, without chart or compass, 
 men boldly ventured into unknown and dan- 
 gerous seas. One half of them found watery- 
 graves or died from other causes, but the 
 
 42026 Pacific N. W. History Dept 
 
 PROViNCJAL. LIBRARY 
 VICTORIA. B. <X 
 
318 
 
 FUR-SEAL AND THE SEA ISLANDS. 
 
 other half returned home rich, and the 
 slaughter went on — a slaughter so indis- 
 criminate that in half a century the sea otter 
 had become scarce. 
 
 But alongside the sea otter had been found 
 his cousin, the fur-seal, and as the supply of 
 the otter began to diminish, increasing at- 
 tention was paid to the seal. For years care- 
 ful observers among the early hunters on the 
 Aleutian Islands had noticed that the seals 
 went north in the spring and returned in the 
 fall accompanied by their young. The old 
 natives also had a tradition that an Aleut 
 had been ceist away on islands to the north, 
 which they called Amik. Therefore yhen 
 the usual catch of furs began to decrease upon 
 the Aleutian Islands, earnest attention was 
 given to discovering the home of the fur-seal. 
 For eighteen years an unremitting search 
 was kept up. For three years Master Geras- 
 sim Gavrilovich Pribylovin a small sloop 
 doggedly continued the search, but so well 
 had nature hidden these islands among the 
 impenetrable fogs of Bering Sea, that 
 Pribylov cruised for weeks in their immediate 
 vicinity, with every evidence of being in the 
 neighborhood of land without being able to 
 find it. But one day early in June, 1786, 
 with the fog so thick that he could scarcely 
 see his vessel's length he ran against the 
 walls of Tolstoi Meea and the secret was out. 
 The island was named after his sloop, the 
 Si. George. 
 
 A party of hunters were left on the island 
 and they in turn discovered the larger island 
 of St. Paul. Over five hundred thousand 
 skins were taken during the year, and the 
 islands afte-wards became a kind of "na- 
 tional bank" from which the celebrated 
 Baranof raised the funds to carry on his gov- 
 ernment in Alaska. If he needed an addi- 
 tional shipload of provisions or supplies, all 
 he had to do was to authorize the killing of 
 more seals in payment. 
 
 With the discovery of the Pribylov Islands 
 another fur-seal rookery was added to the 
 supply of the world. Previous to this dis- 
 covery the supply had come largely from 
 southern waters. From 1770 to 1800 one 
 million skins were taken from Kerguelen 
 Land. In 1798-9 over one million were 
 taken from the island of Mas-d-Fuera, near 
 Juan Fernandez. From 1800 to 1823 one 
 million three hundred and twelve thousand 
 were taken from the Georgian Islands ; in 
 1814-15 four hundred thousand from the Anti- 
 
 podes Island off the coast of New South 
 Wales ; and in 1820-1 three hundred thou- 
 sand from the South Shetland Islands. At 
 that time the principal market was in China, 
 and skins were so abundant that prices occa- 
 sionally fell to fifty cents each. 
 
 The indiscrim^DAte slaughter soon resulted 
 in the extermination of the fur-seal in those 
 sections until now there are but three known 
 rookeries in the world. The smallest of these 
 is the Lobos Islands off the mouth of the 
 river La Platte, and is under the government 
 supervision of the republic of Uruguay. The 
 annual take is restricted to twelve thousand 
 skins. The second rookery is on the Com- 
 mander Islands in Bering Sea and belongs 
 to Russia. From these the annual take is 
 forty thousand skins. The third and largest 
 rookeries are those on the Pribylov Islands, 
 from which the annual take for the twentj- 
 years preceding 1890 has been abcyt one hun- 
 dred thousand skins, or two tL.ds of the 
 world's supply. 
 
 Upon the first discovery of the Pribylov 
 group the destruction of the seal was so 
 great that the Russian government was com- 
 pelled to interfere, and in 1805 prohibited all 
 killing for a period of five years. From 
 X820-67 forty two thousand skins were an- 
 nually exported to the United States, Great 
 Britain, and Canada. 
 
 The first years after the transfer to the 
 United States again witnessed an indiscrim- 
 inate slaughter of the fur-seal by different 
 American firms, until Congress was com 
 pelled to interfere and authorize the Treasury 
 Department to lease the islands under suita- 
 ble restrictions to a responsible company. 
 This was the origin of the Alaska Commer- 
 cial Company of San Francisco. This com- 
 pany held the lease of the islands from 
 1869-90, paying the Government an annual 
 rental of $55,000 and a royalty of 62,14 cents 
 upon each of the one hundred thousand skins 
 allowed to be taken. 
 
 At a recent congressional investigation it 
 was ascertained that up to June 30, 1888, the 
 company had paid into the United States 
 Treasury the sum of $5,597,100, and that for 
 the same time the Government had expended 
 for the protection of the islands in the form 
 of salaries, etc., for the agents, expenses of 
 the revenue marine steamers, and other out- 
 lays the sum of $400,000, leaving a net profit 
 to the Government of $5,197,100. The net 
 profit for the entire lease was over $5,500,000. 
 
 '< 
 
 *. 
 
 1 
 
FUR-SEAL AND THE HEAL ISLANDS. 
 
 319 
 
 <i 
 
 In the spring of 1890 there was a reletting 
 of the islands for a second period of twenty 
 years, and the successful bidder was the 
 North American Commercial Company of 
 San Francisco. By the terms of the new 
 lease the company pay $60,000 a year rental 
 for the islands, a royalty of |t7.62>^ upon each 
 skin taken, and a revenue tax of $2 upon 
 each skin taken. Upon a basis of one hundred 
 thousand skins the annual revenue of the 
 (lovernment is $1,000,000, and the probable 
 net profit of the entire lease $19,000,000. 
 Commencing in the seventies, small schoon- 
 ers were fitted out at San Francisco, Vic- 
 toria, and other ports to capture the seals as 
 they passed north along the coast in the 
 spring. Emboldened by their success, they 
 followed the seal into Bering Sea, and even 
 in a few instances landed upon the seal 
 islands themselves. These increased in num- 
 ber and boldness until in 1885 thirteen thou- 
 sand contraband sealskins were placed upon 
 the market ; in 1886 twenty -five thousand ; 
 in 1887 thirty-four thousand ; in 1888 (very 
 stormy season) twenty-five thousand ; in 
 1889 forty thousand ; in 1890 fifty thousand ; 
 and during the present year sixty thousand. 
 They were taken in the water, where a large 
 percentage of those shot sank before they 
 could be secured. They were also largely 
 females with young. Consequently the above 
 enumeration represents nearly a million seals 
 killed illicitly during the past five years. 
 
 This destruction of seal life by the poachers 
 has sensibly diminished the number upon 
 the seal islands, so that while the North 
 American Commercial Company were al- 
 lowed in 1890 to take sixty thousand skins, 
 there were so few on the islands that they 
 secured only twenty-one thousand. And this 
 year partly to recuperate the seal life and 
 partly on accoi^nt of pending negotiations 
 with Great Britain the take has been re- 
 stricted tu seven thousand five hundred ; this 
 number being allowed in order to furnish 
 food to the native inhabitants. 
 
 During the years 1886-7 in order to break 
 up poaching, ten American and nine British 
 vessels were seized by the United States rev- 
 enue marine steamers. The seizure of the 
 British vessels at once raised the question of 
 jurisdiction and made the " seal question " 
 one of international importance. 
 
 lyast spring through an act of the Parlia- 
 ment of Great Britain, that empire agreed 
 to assist the United States in pv-eserving the 
 
 seal from destruction, and this summer 
 Bering Sea was patrolled by three United 
 States revenue cutters, four American and 
 two British men-of-war, while in the harbor 
 of Unalaska are anchored one American and 
 one British prison ship for the safe keeping of 
 the captured ofiScers of the poaching vessels. 
 
 The Pribylov group consists of *he four 
 islands Walrus, Otter, St. Pau!, and St. 
 George ; only the latter two being utilized in 
 the capture of seal. St. Paul has an area of 
 thirty-three square miles, and St. George of 
 twenty-seven. They are thirty miles apart, 
 and distant about two hundred miles from 
 the main land. Like all the islands of West- 
 ern Alaska, they are treeless and in summer 
 covered withaluxuriantgrowth of moss, grass, 
 and flowers. In winter they are surrounded 
 with great Ice fields from the north and in 
 sunimer enveloped in almost perpetual fog so 
 dense that the sun is seldom seen. They are 
 without sheltered harbors and oftentimes for 
 days together a boat cannot land through the 
 surf. But the fogs and storms are favorable 
 to seal life. 
 
 When the islands were first discovredthey 
 were uninhabited, but the Russians colonized 
 them with two hundred natives from the 
 Aleutian Islands. At the time of the trans- 
 fer in 1867, a number of them returned to 
 their former homes. For those that remained 
 and others who came the Alaska Commercial 
 Company erected small but comfortable frame 
 houses, which are provided to the people free 
 of rent. The people are also furnished with 
 meat, fish, fuel, medical attendance and med- 
 icines, schools, and schoolbooks free. The 
 men receive on an average $500 for a season's 
 work, and the season consists of about six 
 weeks' work. The remainder of the year 
 they have little to do but eat, sleep, gamble, 
 and attend the numerous feast days of the 
 Grseco Russian Church. In 1887 the three 
 hundred Aleuts on the two islands had to 
 their credit in the savings banks of San 
 Francisco the sum of $64,732.11. 
 
 It is estimated that four million seals an- 
 nually make their summer home on these 
 islands. They come when the ice leaves, 
 April or May, and remain until winter com- 
 mences,the following October and November. 
 
 A full-grown male seal is a fine large ani- 
 mal measuring six and one half to seven and 
 one half feet from tip to tip and weighing 
 from four hundred to seven hundred pounds. 
 His hair is a dark, dull brown color. 
 
^^B^^^flS^HCBSU.J— 
 
 -A.^ » ".'.'.VJ 
 
 ^1 
 
 3ao 
 
 FUR-SEAL AND THE SEAL ISLANDS. 
 
 A female seal or cow is from four to four 
 and one half feet long^ and weighs about one 
 hundred pounds. On first coming out of the 
 water the color is a dirty £^ay, which upon 
 drying changes into a steel and maltese g^ay 
 luster, and later into a brown and g^ay mixed. 
 
 The young when first born are from twelve 
 to fourteen inches long and weigh from three 
 to four pounds. For the first three months 
 their color <s a jet black, with two white 
 spots just back of the fore-arm. They are 
 bom on the land and if placed in the water 
 would sink and drown. When two months 
 old they commence to learn to swim, and 
 soon become so proficient that in early winter 
 they go to sea with their friends and remain 
 away six months, without ever landing so 
 far as known. Whither they go no one can 
 tell. We know that each spring they enter 
 Bering Sea from the North Pacific through 
 the various passes between the Aleutian 
 Islands. Early in May the strongest and 
 most vigorous of the bulls arrive as the ad- 
 vance guard at the seal islands and leisurely 
 proceed to select for summer quarters a sec- 
 tion of the beach about twenty feet in diame- 
 ter. There is much fighting for choice loca- 
 tions near the sea and possession is secitred 
 by the strongest. Ailer taking their position 
 they do not leave it until in the fall when 
 they start southward. During the three or 
 four months they are on the islands they 
 neither eat nor drink. They come out of the 
 sea in the spring fat and strong and return to 
 it in the fall lean and weak. Having settled 
 upon their location the bulls spend much of 
 their time sleeping until the arrival of the 
 cows. 
 
 The last of May or early in June the cows 
 begin to arrive and then the great struggle of 
 the season commences among the bulls for 
 their possession. The strongest ones being 
 nearest the water and having the double ad- 
 vantage of location and strength secure from 
 fifteen to twenty for their summer's harem. 
 The bulls in the second row from the water 
 secure a less number, and those in the third 
 row still fewer, and so on back from the 
 beach until some of the old bulls that with 
 increasing age and declining strength are 
 forced to take aback place are left without any. 
 
 The younger male seals from one to five 
 years of age that have not the courage to en- 
 ter the lists and fight for a family are com- 
 pelled to go by themselves and are called 
 " bachelor seals." It is from this class that 
 
 the sealskins of commerce are taken. At 
 four or five years of age the skin is at Its best. 
 After that it becomes more hairy and less 
 valuable. At that age not only are the skins 
 more valuable, but the bachelors are g^rouped 
 by themselves and more easily taken. 
 
 Killing commences in Juneand lasts about 
 six weeks, or until the whole nnmbzr of skins 
 fU<e taken. As the seals are very shy and 
 keen of scent, a day for their capture is se- 
 lected when the wind will allow a party of 
 twenty or thirty men to creep along the beach 
 and get between the seals and the sea with- 
 out being scented. Having got to the sea- 
 ward of the herd, at a given signal they 
 spring to their feet, shouting, beating on tin 
 pans, striking their clubs together, making 
 all the noise they can to frighten the herd. 
 The astonished seals leap forward in their des- 
 perate efforts to escape. If their heads are 
 seaward, into the sea they plunge, but if in- 
 land they run in that direction. Those that 
 run inland are closely followed up. Once 
 started they are driven with less trouble than 
 so many pigs. After driving a short distance 
 a halt is made and the herd is carefully as- 
 sorted out. Those that are too old or too 
 young are allowed to iCi irn to the sea, the 
 killing beingmainly confined to" bachelors " 
 from three to five years of age. 
 
 The selected ones are then driven inland to 
 the salting houses. As their pelts weigh 
 about eight pounds each, it is a saving of 
 labor to make the seal carry himself to the 
 storehouse. During the driving great care is 
 taken not to overheat the animals as that 
 would render the skins worthless, causing 
 the hair to fall out. Upon a cool day when 
 the grass is wet, they can be safely driven at 
 the rate of a mile an hour. For a short dis- 
 tance they can get over the ground as fast as 
 a man can run, but being encased in a thick, 
 warm coat of fat, they soon become exhausted. 
 When the killing ground is reached, they are 
 allowed several hours to cool ofi". 
 
 One June morning in 1890 in company with 
 Mr. C. J. Goff, the U. S. Treasury Agent on 
 the islands, I went out to the killing grounds 
 near the village of St. Paul. A band of three 
 hundred seals were huddled together in the 
 care of keepers. From them a small band of 
 fifteen or twenty would be taken at a time 
 and driven a few yards from the main band. 
 Four or five men with hickory clubs about 
 five feet long went among them. A rap of 
 the club on the nose, between the eyes, or 
 
 »r 
 
 I 
 

 i , 
 
 I 
 
 back of the head quickly killed them. The 
 clubbers were followed by men with knives, 
 who stab the seal to the heart letting out the 
 blood. They in turn were followed by the 
 rippers, who cut the skin around the head 
 and flippers and down the belly, to save th 
 knives of the skinners from any possible 
 chaiice of being dulled b^ contact with sand 
 in the fur. The skinners are so dexterous 
 that it takes only about two minutes to re- 
 move a pelt. These were followed by an- 
 other set of men who separated the skin from 
 the blubber. Thus a thousand seals can be 
 killed and skinned in about three hours. 
 
 While the killing was going on a score of 
 women and girls were filling sealskin bags 
 with blubber, which was carried home on 
 their backs to be fried out into oil (butter) for 
 winter use. The flesh was also cairicd home, 
 cut into thin strips, and hung on frames to 
 dry. After being dried it is stuiTed into the 
 stomach of th# sea lion, which has been 
 cleansed and prepared for the purpose. After 
 pressing in all the dried meat possible, seal 
 oil is poured in filling up the spaces. 
 This makes a huge sausage (Arctic canned 
 seal meat) between two and three feet in 
 diameter. 
 
 The intestines of the seal are also saved. 
 They are cleansed very much as are the in- 
 testines of the hog when prepared for sau- 
 sages. They are then inflated with air and 
 hung out to dry. When dry they are slit 
 lengthwise with a sharp knife and form a rib- 
 bon three or four inches wide and from 
 seventy-five to one hundred feet long. From 
 these strips of intestines are manufactured 
 the famous kamileka, or waterproof coats, 
 universally worn by the natives in this sec- 
 
 tion. These garments are much stronger, 
 lighter, and drier, and resist rain longer and 
 better than the rubber goods of commerce. 
 Among the Eskimos of the Arctic the larger 
 intestines of the walrus are used, making a 
 correspondingly wider band. Thus every 
 part of the seal is put to practical use. 
 
 From the killing ground the skins are 
 carted to the storehouse, where they are 
 counted, weighed, and salted down in bins. 
 After seven days they are taken up and re- 
 salted, and after forty days are taken up the 
 second time, lightly brushed, and tied up 
 into bundles containing two skins each for 
 shipment. In the fall they are sent to San 
 Francisco where they are packed into casks 
 and shipped to London. 
 
 In London the grease is removed and the 
 skins are shaved down by machinery on the 
 flesh side until all the long outer hairs can be 
 pulled out, for in their native condition the 
 beautiful fine fur is hidden by coarse outer 
 hair — a condition similar to the feathers and 
 down on a bird. The remaining fur is now 
 the native color of light brown bordering on 
 a dull yellow. The treatment of the skin 
 being completed, the fur is dyed to the beau- 
 tiful color it has in sacques. The larger num- 
 ber of skins are then returned to the United 
 States ready to be made up into garments. 
 
 The skin in its native condition is compar- 
 atively inexpensive, costing from $io to $15. 
 The preparation for market is so particular 
 and delicate an operation that the original 
 cost is greatly increased. It is claimed that 
 furriers of New York can compete with those 
 of London in the preparation of the skins, 
 but the larger number of skins continue to be 
 sent to London.