Page:Voyages in the Northern Pacific - 1896.djvu/69

Rh seal-skins. The Russians brought us off plenty of gull's eggs, salted ducks, and a number of young sea lions, which we found very good eating.

The islands of St. Paul and St. George are within sight of each other; the Russians keep 12 men on each, for the purpose of curing the fur-seal-skin, with which these islands abound. They take 40,000 annually, and still the seal does not decrease. The mode they pursue is as follows: The seal comes on shore to pup in July, and stays the whole summer, leaving a sufficient number of clapmatches and wigs; the hunters drive up the last year's pups like a flock of sheep, out of sight and hearing of the old ones, and knock them on the head; taking care not to let one of those driven up escape. Each summer's pups go to sea and comes on shore next summer, and are fit to kill. They leave the islands in November very lean; they take in several smooth stones about the size of an egg, I suppose for ballast. I could never find out where the seal winters; but certain it is, they must have a place where they remain during that season and feed, which has not yet been discovered. The people on these islands live under ground; they collect drift-wood enough in summer to last the winter; they live chiefly on sea-lion meat jerked, pickled ducks, gull's eggs preserved in oil, etc.

On the 24th we saw the ship-rock, and could hear the roaring of the sea-lion and elephant, long before we could see the rock, it being very foggy. On its clearing away, we saw the island of Oonalaska, and stood towards Cook's Straits.